Free Republic

Despite all of the craziness that is going on out there, many pundits are trying to convince us that life will soon “return to normal” and that great days are just around the corner. They are telling us this despite the fact that the state of Texas has been in a state of collapse this week, the real economy continues to implode, the unemployment numbers are going up, civil unrest continues to rage in our streets on a nightly basis, and our entire planet continues to become even more unstable. Those that believe that happy days are here again have...

CriticalRace.org is a resource for parents and students concerned about how Critical Race Theory, and implementation of Critical Race Training, impacts education. We have compiled the most comprehensive database to empower parents and students. We have researched and documented Critical Race Training in over 200 colleges and universities in the United States. The website explains Critical Race Theory itself and provides resources to learn more. Additionally, it allows users to look up the steps their school has taken to mandate Critical Race Training in different parts of the college experience, from changing academic codes of conduct to funding “equity” projects....

China's Communist Party uses the Great Firewall to block information from its citizens. Blocking speech based on politics has been a hallmark of every totalitarian government“That is all right. I had them on my list, too,” a prominent public figure joked after learning that he had been blacklisted by a political opponent. Who said this? Was it Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., after Simon and Schuster canceled his book deal because he challenged the Electoral College results from Pennsylvania, even though Democrats had similarly objected in 2001, 2005, and 2017? Was it a Trump administration official responding to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s...

If you think state and federal government COVID-19 policies are too restrictive, you haven’t been to a college campus lately. Schools across the country have imposed extreme, micromanaging rules on 19-22 year olds—a demographic more likely to die from the seasonal flu and pneumonia than COVID.Paying top dollar at already overpriced institutions for vastly inferior remote learning, university students remain unnecessarily isolated and barred from using the services and facilities they and their families are paying for. Many schools, like Southern Methodist University, forbid students from having guests in their dorm rooms. Others have even installed security cameras in the...

Bloomberg estimates that the end of the pandemic and the complete return to normal from coronavirus will take seven years. Based on current vaccination rates from all over the world, eradicating the virus completely will take time. However, vaccinations are happening more rapidly in richer Western countries than elsewhere. Consequently, the world will need seven years for a return to normal. At present, the world’s biggest vaccination campaign in history is ongoing. Health ministries of 73 countries started issuing around 131 million doses in total. The latest estimate places the number of daily inoculations at 4.69 million doses a day....

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) warned residents Thursday to refrain from attending Super Bowl parties this weekend due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, instructing them to “stay home.” The Democrat mayor shared a popular clown meme to social media , depicting the progression of an individual transforming into a circus clown as he outlines his plans to go to a Super Bowl party. The decision to go to such an event, the governor said, impacts the entire community.

The Shield of Achilles She looked over his shoulder For vines and olive trees, Marble well-governed cities And ships upon untamed seas, But there on the shining metal His hands had put instead An artificial wilderness And a sky like lead....

<p>The idea of troops in U.S. streets for an extended period of time -- an extreme measure even when temporary -- has now become close to a sacred consensus.</p><p>Washington, DC has been continuously militarized beginning the week leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration, when 20,000 National Guard troops were deployed onto the streets of the nation’s capital. The original justification was that this show of massive force was necessary to secure the inauguration in light of the January 6 riot at the Capitol.</p>

The recent spate of Democrat politicians and pundits calling for the "re-education" of Trump voters is chilling and reminds me of an incident I experienced in 2019. As a professional speaker, only once I have been disinvited to speak in my 36-year career, while otherwise delivering 1,056 presentations to a virtual who's who of prominent organizations, often for exceedingly high speaker fees. The dis-invitation, months after the original invitation, occurred in Raleigh, North Carolina. In February 2019, after hearing a general call for speakers, I forwarded my speaking credentials and suggested a topic to the group's meeting planner. On the...

On the heels of the breach of the U.S. Capitol, Big Tech companies have swiftly censored the President, the emerging social media platform Parler was effectively shut down, and there are growing calls for no-fly lists. Does the assault on the Capitol warrant such a response? “We’re living in a gigantic lie that is reminiscent of the Reichstag fire,” argues talk show host Dennis Prager, founder of Prager University. This is American Thought Leaders, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

WARSAW, Poland, January 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The prime minister of Poland has delivered a blistering denunciation of Big Tech censorship, following the recent ban of President Donald Trump and others by virtually all social media giants. On Tuesday afternoon, Mateusz Morawiecki, 52, published a post defending internet freedom in both Polish and English on Facebook. He said that Poles are “so attached to freedom because we know what it is like when someone tries to limit it.” “For close to 50 years we lived in a country in which censorship was practiced, in which Big Brother told us how...

Is it just me or does anyone else feel themselves in a state of suspended animation? Like in Sleeper where Miles Monroe, the amateur clarinetist and fulltime neurotic, wakes up in the 22nd century from a 200-year bout of suspended animation to discover America has turned into a totalitarian police state. Hijinks ensue.Miles: What kind of government you guys got here? This is worse than California! The majority of society is comprised of conformists who look to The Leader for direction and guidance. But a band of underground anti-government radicals resuscitate Miles in hopes that – because he doesn’t exist...

In October, United Airlines tested “the first transatlantic trial of Common Pass, an app that creates a standard digital format for COVID-19 test results.” The app has been developed by the Commons Project and the World Economic Forum, and the hope is that it will both facilitate travel across borders and provide confidence to passengers that it’s safe to fly again. The pass right now reports on a traveler’s COVID-19 test status, but it could easily transition to track vaccination status, and indeed the industry expects it to do just that. The acceptance of these types of apps as a...

I never thought that my adopted home, the land of the free, would so soon start sounding like the one-party dictatorial state I left behind.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is reportedly in the process of creating a global blacklist of critics who have supported or funded the freedom and democracy movement in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The list specifically targets those who reside outside mainland China. The scale of the project might be massive because, in Taiwan alone, at least 6 million people support Taiwan’s independence, which is a punishable crime in the eyes of the CCP. The Global Times,...

I have to be careful in writing this column, not because I might say something I don’t mean, but because I might say exactly what I mean and the editors will cut it because it’s…well, let’s just say “not quite family friendly.” In “Groundhog Day,” Bill Murray tells Phil the groundhog “Don’t drive angry.” Writing angry is fine, but writing disgusted is something different. So, if you pick up on any subliminal messages in this piece, they are by accident (mostly). Whatever ends up happening with the challenges in the election (the media called it for Biden and in between...

The years 1917, 1924 and 1932 were ominous in Russian, Italian and German history respectively. In each case, the elections of those years would be the last free elections for quite some time. The electoral process went haywire, and totalitarians of one stripe or another seized control. There is a widespread fear that 2020 will be a similar year for the United States, and that we’re about to hold the last free election for the foreseeable future. At first, this seems absurd. Trump is no Hitler, and Biden is no Lenin. In terms of method and ideology, neither candidate approaches...

Germany will be plunged back into lockdown with restaurants, bars and theaters closed for a month to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19, officials announced Wednesday. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors said the partial shutdown will go into force Monday, saying it’s needed after a recent surge in new infections. “We must act, and now, to avoid an acute national health emergency,” Merkel said in a videoconference.

German Medical Association president Klaus Reinhardt has been forced to clarify his position on mask-wearing after his claim that there was no “scientific evidence they are actually helpful” sparked an outcry from politicians and doctors. Reinhardt told a TV talk show on public broadcaster ZDF that he had doubts wearing simple non-medical masks outdoors was effective against the coronavirus. Such face coverings, he said, offered “no protection at all” to those wearing them, and only “very little protection against infecting others.” A sharp rise in coronavirus cases across Germany in recent weeks has led to stricter rules in many cities,...

These past twenty-nine years in the United States proved that the fairy tale land I’ve heard about is still the land of opportunity. This is the country where everyone has a chance for a good living, if they work at it. In the country I came from (Russia) we worked hard, but to no avail. The system did not reward the hard work, it favored those who sought wellbeing by becoming a part of the system, manipulating the system or becoming communist party members. Since most of my life I lived in a country where socialism was at a very...

Another terrifying development during the pandemic is the use of executive orders and executive authority to initiate restrictions without… Over the past couple of weeks a trend has become apparent in the state of Idaho, specifically in Moscow, Idaho in Latah County. The city council of Moscow has issued a mandatory mask order, and they are using police to enforce it. Bizarrely, the city had ZERO deaths from Covid at the time the mask order was instituted, meaning their action was in response to…nothing. Idaho has had a total of 500 deaths from Covid since the beginning of the outbreak....