Free Republic

A Russian doctor has been convicted of “promoting fascism” — for sharing the music video for The Cranberries’ anti-war mega-hit “Zombie.” Valery Kochnev, a surgeon and aspiring politician who had been running for a seat on the Veliky Novgorod’s City Council as a candidate from the Yabloko opposition party, was found guilty Tuesday of “displaying extremist symbols” and fined the equivalent of $20, his party said. The case revolved around a 2021 post that was published on Kochnev’s “V Kontakte” social media page — and which was discovered by a prosecutor with the Russian Internal Affairs Department’s Center for Countering...

Once again, politicians use popular fears to push for open-ended power.Even if you believe that governments should be in the business of banning things such as popular communications tools, the details of the effort to eject TikTok from the United States should give you pause. Predictably, politicians are using fears that the popular social media service is spying on behalf of the Chinese government to propose broad legislation that threatens to affect much more than one app. The Rattler is a weekly newsletter from J.D. Tuccille. If you care about government overreach and tangible threats to everyday liberty, this is...

"Was he alone in possession of a memory?” wondered Winston Smith as he starts a diary in the novel 1984. ******************************************** I resonated to that line massively when I read it again in my umpteenth re-reading of George Orwell’s masterpiece. Yes, I know. Constantly referring to the Orwellian-ness of everything is just as bad as comparing every authoritarian who pops up to Hitler, but there is this feeling around the edges these days…of being stuck in an eternal present where no one knows anything about the past; that nothing’s very deep; that opinions are always binary and that there’s no...

Says other nations were in 'marvel' at U.S. abandonment of Afghanistan Joe Biden departs the Oval Office to board Marine One on the South Lawn, Thursday, April 21, 2022, en route to Joint Base Andrews for his trip to Portland and Seattle. (Official White House photo by Cameron Smith) Joe Biden’s administration routinely rewrites science. For example, under his ideology men can become women by saying so.

Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Friday on MSNBC’s “All In” that during the House Select Committee investigation into the January 6, of over 1000 witnesses, not one believed President Donald Trump won in 2020. Raskin said, “The truth has this power in investigations like this because things that seemed obscure or shadowy before suddenly become clear when you hear lots and lots of people talking about it. We had over 1000 witnesses come in and freely talk to us about what was going on. Certain things just achieved a crystalline clarity. One was nobody bought the big lie. The attorney...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Officials say there will be no charges filed against the deputies who fatally shot Winston Smith in June atop a Minneapolis parking ramp. On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office disseminated the review of the case by the Crow Wing County Attorney’s Office, which determined that the U.S. Marshal Task Force’s use of deadly force was lawful and “no criminal prosecution should be sought in this matter.” Last month, Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan said he was reviewing the case because counties closer to the Twin Cities had conflicts. Ryan sent his findings to the Hennepin...

MINNEAPOLIS — The woman who was in the vehicle with the man fatally shot by members of a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force earlier this month says she never saw a gun in the man's possession, nor did she ever see a gun inside the vehicle at the time of the shooting. On June 3, law enforcement shot and killed a man, later identified as Winston Smith, at a parking ramp in Uptown Minneapolis. According to a news release from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the task force members — who were deputies with Hennepin and Ramsey County sheriff's...

The number of vaccine deaths jumped double digits in the latest US reporting. The Israeli political situation with Prime Minister Netanyahu saying 'people rightly feel cheated' with the new government being proposed but first... 27 arrests in Minneapolis Saturday night in a third night of protests over the killing of Winston Smith by a US Marshals Task Force... (Comment) Not such a big deal because Joe Biden is President mainstream media? Also feds not using body cams if local law enforcement uses them why not feds? The latest Centers for Disease Control data on vaccine side effects showing 759 new...

The high school of the knife-wielding teen shot by police while attacking another woman quietly added her to their honor roll after her mother had claimed she was an “honor roll student”. Independence High School in Columbus, Ohio updated the honor roll list on its website to show that Ma’Khia Bryant had recently earned honor roll status for the past nine-week quarter. But the update only happened after inquiries from The College Fix. “Yes, she was an honor roll student and has been described by her educators as a very driven and engaged student who wanted to grow and be...

Last week, many of us were surprised when President Joe Biden used the word “crisis” to describe the situation at the southern border. “We’re going to increase the number [of refugees]. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people. We couldn’t do two things at once. ”After months of refusing to call it a “crisis,” this seemed like a stunning admission that may have indicated that things were about to change, that the Biden administration would finally treat the situation at the border as a crisis. So...

Following the election and inauguration of Donald Trump, sales of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel “1984” skyrocketed to number one on the Amazon bestseller list. The book’s publisher, Penguin, even ordered 75,000 reprints of the book. It was only a matter of time before the Trump bump for Orwell’s book would turn into a Broadway production. However, due to its graphic portrayal of grotesque torture scenes, it’s caused audience members to faint, vomit, and even get into fistfights. In a similar fashion to the novel, the play, starring Tom Sturridge as Winston Smith and Olivia Wilde as Julia (his illegal...

The Library of Congress is dropping the terms “illegal alien” and “alien” from its subject headings after a group of college students and the American Library Association protested the words’ usage.

Google has removed over 70,000 Internet links, amid accusations it is trying to promote critical reactions to a EU court ruling by targeting major media outlets. The US firm on Thursday (3 July) said it was getting around 1,000 “right to be forgotten” requests a day. The EU court in Luxembourg in May ruled the search giant should delete links on searches done on the basis of a person’s name if found “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant.” …

Even as President Obama and his administration are making a last minute push to encourage enrollment in Obamacare, a quiet change was made on the Healthcare.gov website regarding those who will still not be able to afford coverage after the program kicks in. From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, under the topic, "Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?" the following statement appeared: "If you can't afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center." Here is how the...

Change.gov, the website created by the Obama transition team in 2008, has effectively disappeared sometime over the last month. While the front splash page for Change.gov has linked to the main White House website for years, until recently, you could still continue on to see the materials and agenda laid out by the administration. This was a particularly helpful resource for those looking to compare Obama's performance in office against his vision for reform, laid out in detail on Change.gov. According to the Internet Archive, the last time that content (beyond the splash page) was available was June 8th --...