Free Republic

While Hitler and Mussolini both expressed their opposition to and hatred of “Marxists,” they nevertheless embraced a leftism that was only marginally different from that embraced by Lenin and Stalin. In light of recent events and discussions attempting to rehabilitate the historical reputation of Germany’s Nazis, it might be worthwhile to re-examine the foundations of the ideology that underpinned National Socialism and its close cousin fascism. Those who embrace the revisionism that excuses the Nazis’ crimes appear to believe that by doing so, they are defending themselves and their ideological brethren from unfair and ahistorical attacks by the broader left....

Governor Gavin Newsom called lawmakers into a special session Saturday to address spikes in gasoline prices. The move follows pushback Newsom received on a request to approve a series of bills that would cut energy costs for Californians and require petroleum refiners to maintain a stable inventory. Across the nation, Californians pay the highest rates for gas at an average of $4.64 a gallon for regular unleaded, compared to the national average of $3.33, according to AAA. Electricity bills in the state have also nearly doubled in the last decade and are expected to keep outpacing inflation through 2027 as...

“Polis dismissed anger over Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua taking over apartment buildings in the Denver suburb of Aurora, calling it ‘imagination’.” I blogged about the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang taking over an apartment complex in Aurora, Co. I speculated that “Colorado’s governor — Branch Covidian, gun-grabber, and general tyrant wannabe — Jared Polis will almost certainly tackle this . . . now that it’s gaining negative national attention. He will likely issue a disapproving statement and let this continue.” I was wrong, though he may yet get there. As of now, he is dismissing the video evidence...

Dystopia lies ahead. Imagine life in the near future. A man resides alone in a tiny apartment. He would prefer to be married, but the State considers that antiquated institution “patriarchal” and “white supremacist.” He would prefer to have children, but he can’t afford them. Besides, his yearly carbon allowance is insufficient to cover another resource-wasting human being. He has never owned anything. He rents his bedroom, his furnishings, and his meager entertainments. Each month, a digital account associated with his digital ID receives a number of central bank digital currency units. How much he receives depends upon the number...

Fate must be pranking the far left, because they adopted one of the Nazis’ primary ad concepts. We’ve already seen how there is an eerie overlap between the Harris-Walz images and slogans and those of the Nazis, Soviets, and Chinese communists. But fate weirdly slated them to adopt an iconic Nazi sloganeering concept that was even present in a memorable moment in the best of the Indiana Jones movies. So witness the woke crossover of the Nazi and Un-Democratic parties, a word concept voiced by Volkskomrade Kamala herself, our glorious vice president. Historic propaganda imagery of the Nazi era will...

RFK, Jr. has quickly learned that the Dems of his youth are not the Dems of today. The best way to learn something is to experience it firsthand. For example, a child experiences (learns) a hot stove by touching it. Ouch!! He won’t do that again. It’s the same with tyrannical and authoritarian regimes -- once someone experiences the oppression, dishonesty, deceit, and censorship of a communist, socialist, theocratic, or similar forms of government, they staunchly oppose those governments. Once you experience the full brunt of an authoritarian regime, you never want to experience it again. Decades ago, I learned...

There is a serious consequence to the fact that the nation’s socialist media are the marketing arm of the DNC. They are the gaslighting gatekeepers, the people who decide who is to be slapped with a “fact check” and suppressed and who is sanctioned as a “trusted source” and who is ignored. Thus, the media are free to propagate any propaganda for what is obviously their side, while mercilessly attacking pro-freedom media sources for the “crime” of telling the truth. This means that the left has become overly dependent on lies. Lying is the left’s only way to move “forward.”...

Governments have a vested interest in stirring up domestic conflict. One of the few interesting things about America’s highly choreographed political conventions is the gathering of people outside these events. Supporters and protesters show up to yell at the top of their lungs for days. What kinds of taunts do these opposing groups scream at each other? Remarkably, they accuse each other of similar transgressions. Probably the most common insults being lobbed from each side of the political spectrum are accusations that the other side is full of “fascists,” “Nazis,” and “racists.” SNIP Because wealth and power remain in the...

Wherever one looks, socialism leaves behind a legacy of suffering and death on a mass scale, and Bangladesh’s socialist experiment was no exception. In 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led his country, Bangladesh, to independence from Pakistan. Afterward, he ruled as a brutal tyrant, turned to communist economics, and starved to death over one million people. Then he was assassinated. However, his surviving daughter, Sheikh Hasina, later rose to power in Bangladesh, establishing a cronyist, leftist dictatorship. Her regime never reinstated her father’s communist economic policies, but it did create a personality cult of Mujibur Rahman, commonly known in the region...

Here in the U.S., we are accustomed to economic growth almost every year. Look at a chart of U.S. GDP over the course of the last century, and the impression is of near-continuous and extremely robust growth. Here is such a chart from USA Facts, based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (Commerce Department). The so-called “Great Recession” of 2008-09 registers as barely a blip. Same for the Covid-related dip of 2020. (Note in the graph that backing out inflation flattens the slope of the curves to some degree, but does not change the basic form of robust...

FIRST ON FOX – A recent hire at the nuclear security wing of the Department of Energy has previously called for disarmament policies – which reduce or eliminate nuclear weapons – arguing that advancing "queer theory" was essential to that agenda as well as important to America's national security. The Biden-Harris administration announced Sneha Nair had been appointed as special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration in February 2024. Nair believes in eradicating purported "White supremacy" in the nuclear field as well as "queering nuclear weapons" as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion push she believes is essential...

The following is adapted from a talk delivered on September 12, 2023, at the Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship on Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus, as part of the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series. The transgender movement is pressing its agenda everywhere. Most publicly, activist teachers are using classrooms to propagandize on its behalf and activist health professionals are promoting the mutilation of children under the euphemistic banner of “gender-affirming care.” The sudden and pervasive rise of this movement provokes two questions: where did it come from, and how has it proved so successful? The story...

What they mean is to unburden themselves from the limits and confines of the Constitution and to burden us instead with their dream of a New Utopia right here and right now. Every farmer, and most country people, know the insidious problem posed by rodents. The most common of these pesky rodents are, of course, mice and rats. And, because their nature is to hide and invade by night, they create a need for more devious means of eradication than mere trapping. The solution is to feed them a poison they won’t fear eating, so others will also ingest it...

Have those who lectured us about democracy in danger now decided to save it by destroying it? The 2023-2024 campaign season is not just the strangest on record, it’s also arguably the most anti-democratic. Ostensibly, the Democratic Party has claimed over the last decade that Donald Trump posed a continued and existential threat to the republic. That allegation subsequently justified a variety of anti-democratic means to neuter his first two presidential candidacies, his presidency, and now his third and final run for the White House. A near decade ago, we witnessed the 2015-2016 Hillary Clinton/Democratic National Committee/FBI-assisted effort to plant...

Not only do Democrats fashion themselves the protectors of “democracy,” they claim to be champions of decency. Well, if the second day of the Democratic National Convention is any indication, the left doesn’t have any claim on the high moral ground. For one thing, no one at the DNC seemed even mildly constrained by the truth. More than once, for instance, Democrats falsely claimed that Trump had referred to the Tiki Torch Nazis of Charlottesville as “very fine people.” Democrats also falsely accused the former president of instructing Americans to “inject bleach” during the COVID pandemic. Chuck Schumer, who’s painstakingly...

When you've got markets swooning, the price of gold hitting record highs, and skeptical reporters asking you about your communism-mimicking economic plan, maybe you should have some prepared explanations for the questions that arise. Kamala Harris didn't. Here's her response to a CNN reporter's question about how she plans to "pay for" all her big spending plans: Collin Rugg @CollinRugg NEW: Kamala Harris struggles to answer after a reporter asks her about her economic policy, says “return on investment” four times. Reporter: Can you explain how you're gonna pay for your policies?Harris: Well, I mean, you just look at it...

I’m not saying that the Democrats are ready to commit genocide or open gulags, but it really is weird how leftists always think alike, no matter the time or place. The Harris-Walz ticket, we’re told, is all about joy. Joy. Joy. Joy. Also, it’s about the benefits Democrats create for children, with a special focus on teachers’ unions and Tim Walz’s creepy (but, to Democrats, admirable) focus on LGBTQ+ youth. However, alert people are noticing that the Democrats’ campaign’s slogans, along with their images and ideas, have an uncanny resemblance to some things coming out of really icky regimes, such...

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has not only been running a basement campaign, but one completely void of details regarding the serious issues Americans are facing. Realizing that something has to be said about the crushing inflation foisted upon Americans by Harris, Biden, and their pals, Harris is unveiling an economic plan at a rally in North Carolina on Friday that would make the old Soviet communists blush. Indeed, finally we will hear an idea from Kamala and its communism. As an answer to the crippling inflation, her answer is a favorite of failed communist regimes...

For months, skeptics of DEI mandates have celebrated as Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and even the Ivy League have rolled back DEI programs. The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against affirmative action appeared to cool Americans’ re-infatuation with treating people differently according to race. But history should temper our optimism. Some recent policy changes look less like a full-fledged rout and more like a strategic maneuver. Take, for instance, the universities that have recently abandoned mandatory diversity statements from job applicants. For decades, hiring committees have used such statements as a tool to discriminate against right-of-center viewpoints and white or Asian...

The bureaucratic protocols dictating police behavior are merely the amoral tools used to enforce the will and the values of government and the ruling class as a whole. Seventeen years ago, ten-year-old Jordan Lyon drowned in a pond in Wigan, Lancashire (England) while trying to save his eight-year-old sister. According to witness testimony, two police community support officers stood by and watched, as they did not have orders to enter the water and provide assistance. Nine years ago, 17-year-old Jack Susianta drowned in a 6-foot-deep canal in Clapton, East London. Again, police officers stood by, unable or unwilling to help....