Free Republic

On this date in 1942, just two days after he had assassinated Admiral Francois Darlan, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle was shot by the Vichy army in Algiers. Despite its shorthand reputation as a Nazi puppet, Vichy France — especially in 1940-42 — was a more nuanced animal that’s enjoyed increased study of late. Vichy controlled southern France under the obvious pressure of the next-door German occupation and effected state collaboration with Berlin including deportations, but it also maintained diplomatic relations with the U.S. Vichy France even shot German spies. Vichy was one contender among several for political legitimacy in...

Collaborationist French journalist Jean Luchaire was shot on this date in 1946. Fortuitously just too young for the trenches of the Great War, Luchaire (English Wikipedia entry | French) was the son of playwright Julien Luchaire, and he — the son — emerged in the interwar years as an important pacifist and advocate for French-German rapprochement. The 1939-1940 war between those countries obviously dunked this philosophy into the crucible, and not long after the Wehrmacht marched into Paris on June 14, 1940, Luchaire emerged as a friend of the Vichy government. His Les Nouveaux Temps* — founded in November 1940...

Several researchers used by leading corporate media outlets to debunk claims that COVID-19 originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have previously attended events or accepted awards from the controversial lab, The National Pulse can reveal. The researchers’ Chinese Communist Party ties – which present a clear conflict of interest – are omitted from the media reports, which instead present the scientists as unbiased adjudicators of COVID-19’s origins. support In March 2020, NBC Science Contributor Dr. Joseph Fair called for the Trump administration to “stop blaming China” for the outbreak of the virus, despite mounting evidence – even at the...

Bergoglio's unleashed demons in full rage in St. Peter's Bas1lica As you gaze upon this abomination that took place in St. Peter's Basilica in October 2019, reflect for a moment on what has happened in the year and a half since. Think of the diabolical experimentation on bat viruses that leaked out from a laboratory in Wuhan whether accidentally or intentionally. Think of the deaths of people, the suffering and the economic toll on hundreds of millions because of the actionsof a Satanic regime whom the man in white in the above photograph, and his minions, laud. Remember, for...

McConnell Out? Insiders Drop Bomb, May Not Finish Out Term: Report By Kipp Jones Published March 6, 2021 at 11:29am Mewe Share After being elected to seven terms in the U.S. Senate, a report claims Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell might be on his way out and seeking someone to replace him. McConnell, 79, most recently cruised to his sixth re-election in November by a margin of 57.8 percent to 38.2 percent over Democratic challenger Amy McGrath. Former President Donald Trump endorsed McConnell in the race, which Democrats reportedly felt would be more competitive than it was. But following Biden’s...

Bill Burns – Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency – serves as the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which has over a decade-long relationship with the China-United States Exchange Foundation and other Chinese Communist Party-linked groups. Burns has served as President of the think tank since 2014, overseeing its involvement with the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) which dates back to at least 2009. CUSEF – part of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front effort that seeks to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition” and encourage foreign actors to “adopt positions supportive of...

A new Franco-German assembly met in Paris on Monday in their first biannual summit as French and German parliaments deepen relations. The move aims to cement the special bond and influence the two countries traditionally have in the European Union. A total of 100 members of parliament, 50 from Germany’s Bundestag and 50 from France’s lower house of parliament (Assemblée Nationale), took part in the joint parliamentary summit. […] “Germany and France have a special responsibility for Europe,” the Bundestag president (Wolfgang Schäuble) said, adding that the new assembly “will neither impair nor abolish the sovereignty of either nation.” […]...

"He was a great soldier, it's a fact," Macron said, though he stressed that Petain had made "disastrous choices" during World War II. His comments drew fierce criticism from rival politicians as well as Jewish leaders, reopening a painful chapter in France's history which continues to divide the nation decades on. Francis Kalifat of the CRIF association of French Jewish groups said he was "shocked" by Macron's comments praising a leader who helped deport thousands of Jews to their deaths. "The only thing we will remember about Petain is that he was convicted, in the name of the French people,...

The French president has said it is “legitimate” to pay tribute to Marshal Philippe Pétain, who led the French army to victory in the first world war but decades later collaborated with Nazi Germany. Emmanuel Macron’s plan to honour Pétain alongside seven other French marshals who directed military campaigns during the first world war, which ended 100 years ago on 11 November, has unleashed criticism from Jewish groups, political opponents and on social media. Pétain was promoted to commander-in-chief of the French armies in mid-1917, after victory at Verdun, rebuilding troop morale after a series of mutinies and other setbacks....

Robert Faurisson, a former French academic who was convicted several times for claiming there was no systematic mass killings of Jews by Nazi Germany, has died aged 89 in his hometown of Vichy, central France. British-born Faurisson was also a staunch defender of Marshal Philippe Petain, the Vichy French leader who collaborated with Nazi occupiers of the country during World War II. A former professor of French literature at the University of Lyon, Faurisson maintained that the gas chambers in Auschwitz were the "biggest lie of the 20th century", saying deported Jews died instead of disease and malnutrition. He also...

Hillary Clinton insists she takes nothing for granted and will campaign to the end as if she were the underdog. But there are increasing signs of her confidence, including devoting more time in her speeches to trying to help Democratic candidates for Senate and other offices. CNN's Jeff Zeleny shares his reporting on her quiet, private outreach to Senate Republicans as Clinton allows herself to look ahead at the prospect of trying to govern. "I'm told she's been talking to Republican senators, old allies and new, saying that she is willing to work with them and govern. On the campaign...

President Obama has earned enough Democratic votes in the Senate to filibuster a Senate effort to block the Iran nuclear deal, if necessary. On Monday, Sens Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) , Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) , and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced their support for the deal, tallying enough votes to successfully filibuster the deal. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced his opposition to the deal in a surprise defection from Obama, citing Iran’s support of terrorism and the death of American soldiers. “This regime has shown no signs that its deplorable behavior will change, and this deal does nothing to...

A day before the August recess, when Rep. Mark Meadows announced a legislative move to strip Speaker John A. Boehner of his gavel, few would have predicted that Donald Trump would be the summer’s biggest political story. But with the billionaire developer consistently topping the polls, and with most theories on his ascendance citing a general disgust with business as usual in Washington, Meadows sees Trump as a harbinger for his colleagues in the House. “The Trump phenomenon is not just with Donald Trump; it’s with re-election with members as well,” Meadows told CQ Roll Call Wednesday, “and there’s a...

I heard on Bill Bennett this morning that we still have the medical device tax thanks to Democrat/Obama/MitchMcConnell Care. I thought that part of the beast had been ripped out, but apparently it was tabled like so many other conservative efforts thanks to McConnell not using Harry Reid's "nuclear option" to get the bill to the floor for a vote. Bills only takes 51 to pass the senate, but Reid's buddy Mitch won't let them come to the floor for a vote. What good is he for us?

Sen. John McCain is talking with Democrats about a joint effort to require outside groups that have spent millions of dollars on this year’s elections to disclose their donors. McCain (R-Ariz.), once Congress’s leading champion of campaign finance reform, has kept a low profile on the issue in recent years. He raised the ire of many Republicans a decade ago for pushing comprehensive reform, and many Republicans still held it against him during his 2008 presidential campaign.

Freshman Tea Party Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) is incensed that Republicans caved in the payroll-tax debate, and is putting the blame squarely on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). “I don’t think there’s a revolt with respect to Speaker Boehner,” Gowdy said Thursday night on Fox’s "Your World With Neil Cavuto." "I think the license tag of the truck that just ran over us has Kentucky license tags. For the life of me, I cannot understand when the Senate is going to find something they care enough about to stand on policy and principle.”Last week, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a...

Former president George H. W. Bush offered an informal endorsement of Mitt Romney in remarks published Thursday, saying that Mr. Romney “is the best choice for us.” The former president told reporters for The Houston Chronicle that he supported Mr. Romney because of his “stability, experience, principles. He’s a fine person,” Mr. Bush, 87, said. “I just think he’s mature and reasonable – not a bomb-thrower.” The paper reported the comments, made this week, on its Web site Thursday afternoon. A spokesman for Mr. Bush confirmed the accuracy of the comments and said they fully reflect the views of the...

House speaker John Boehner is set to sign an offer from Obama to accelerate negotiations. Republicans in the House of Representatives have capitulated in the showdown over the payroll tax, handing Barack Obama an important victory going into election year. Under pressure from other senior Republicans for blocking a bill that would extend tax cuts to millions of Americans, the House speaker, John Boehner, is backing away from his insistence that any deal must cover a full year. A deal agreed by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate on Saturday covers two months, to allow further negotiations in January. It...

Southfield, Mich. — As other Republican candidates have stumbled their way toward the presidential primaries, Mitt Romney has put together what would seem to be all the elements of a winning campaign: an effective staff, a robust treasury and smooth, knowledgeable performances both in debates and on the trail. But for months, the threshold of support for the former Massachusetts governor hasn't inched above a quarter of Republican voters in national polls. For many GOP voters in early primary states, hesitation about Romney comes back to one thing: their perception that he has routinely molded his views to suit the...

<p>“I do not believe that the people of the United States are going to take people who’ve been here for a quarter of a century … [and] separate them from their families and expel them,” Gingrich said during a discussion about illegal immigration and border security. “I do believe we should control the border. I do believe we should have very severe penalties.”</p>