Free Republic

“Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.” - Lenin’s formula as presented by the Communist Party Program of the Soviet Union, p. 62 The draft of the Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was presented to the Communist Party’s Twenty-Second Congress in October 1961. Crosscurrents Press in New York published it in English “as an aid to everyone wanting to understand the plans and intentions of those who lead and govern the Soviet Union.” It was a time when the Cold War highlighted the existential fight between communism and capitalism, separated by an...

Never before in the history of our nation, have Americans been subjected to such an unrelenting streak of disgraceful and antithetical controversies, political havoc and chaos such as that we have endured under the Barack Obama administration. Never before in the history of the nation, has there been such divisiveness amongst the classes, the races and the peoples in general, such as what we now see under an Obama reign plagued with discord, envy, resentment, and anger like never before seen in this noble land.

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- Imagine being ordered to go against your religious beliefs, and if you refuse, you could be arrested, fined, or sued. That happened to the Christian owner of a Colorado bakery who now must make wedding cakes for gay couples. However, the owner is standing his ground and his action is inspiring people around the world. Discriminating Accusation The sign on the door reads "Celebrating 20 Years of Great Cakes!" For two decades, Masterpiece Cakeshop has created art in the form of baked goods that keeps customers coming back. From cookies and cupcakes to signature cakes, Jack Phillips...

A ballot initiative that would support breaking California into six smaller and more coherent states is being backed by Timothy Draper, a tech investor. It’s a great idea. But why stop with California? Breaking up all of the too-large states would increase both the accountability and efficiency of the U.S. government. America’s state governments are too big to be democratic and too small to be efficient. Given an adequate tax base, public services like public schools and hospitals, utilities and first responders are best carried out by cities and counties. Most infrastructure is either local or regional or national. Civil...

Thirty-three years ago, on September 6, 1981, Father Józef Tischner preached one of the great sermons of the 20th century at a Mass opening the second day of the inaugural Solidarity Congress in Gdań​sk. Tischner, an old friend of John Paul II and the pope’s fellow philosopher, combined the rugged good humor and patriotism of a Polish highlander with a first-class intellect. So he began his sermon with some essential truth-telling to the men and women about to deliberate the future of the Communist world’s first independent, self-governing trade union. Father Tischner didn’t tell the thousands assembled in Gdansk that...

I was checking out WW2 stats, and came across research on the 30 greatest atrocities of the 20th century. An estimated 55 million died in WW2. In addition, 20 million died under Stalin, 40 million under Mao Zedong, 1.65 million under the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, and 400,000 under North Korea. The combined 62 million total tops WW2 by 7 million. The kicker is that, with the current U.S. population approaching 320 million, that figure of 62 million, if applied to the United States, would mean that 1/5, that is, 20% of us, would have perished!

Paul Farhi of The Washington Post writes today about a trend at the White House—and throughout journalism—that threatens the quality and credibility of news-gathering: Public-relations "minders" are injecting themselves into our interviews with politicians, CEOs, and other policymakers. Minder madness joins the surge of "background briefings" and the decline of access to decision-makers as evidence that the White House—and other big instititutions—are manipulating the press. It's that, but it's also something worse: It's evidence that journalists are ceding control when they should be seizing it, accepting canned news rather than breaking it. Farhi writes, "Almost every officially sanctioned exchange between...

UN-backed event ends with unusual call from civil society groups to end capitalism A UN-backed conference in Venezuela has ended with a declaration to scrap carbon markets and reject the green economy. The Margarita Declaration was issued at the end of a four-day meeting of around 130 green activist groups, which the Venezuelan government hosted in order to raise the volume of civil society demands in UN discussions on climate change. “The structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system,” the final declaration said. “To combat climate change it is necessary to change the system.”...

Russia could ask its richest citizens to help foot the bill for the annexation of Crimea by paying a "solidarity tax" proposed by a group of lawmakers. Deputies from the State Duma lower house of parliament, which is dominated by backers of President Vladimir Putin, have drawn up a draft law that would increase income tax for people earning more than more than 1 million roubles ($28,700) a month. It would affect less than 2 percent of the working population but the amounts could be huge for some individuals because the daft proposes they pay up to 30 percent of...

"I can't find anything. Prices are climbing daily," said Jesus Ramirez, a taxi driver who has spent a year trying to replace the 2008 Renault he purchased new for $7,441. He sold the car for over $30,000 five years later. With inflation at 60% a year, among the highest in the world, Venezuelans protect their earnings by buying cars, among other big-ticket items. Car parts needed to keep vehicles on the road have also become difficult to find. That has led thieves to steal parts such as batteries from parked cars. The owner of a Caracas car dealership who said...

We’ve never had a “community organizer” as our President before. And we are seeing the disastrous consequences of putting this community organizer at the head of the most powerful nation in the world. He has taken the apparatus of government and used it solely to organize, or as he calls it, fundamentally transform, the nation into a characterization of his ideal world.

It is no surprise that young people are enamored of communism. Their teachers have been indoctrinating them for years into the utopia of “social justice,” “environmental justice,” the “evil” middle class, and the spectacular equality for all as envisioned by Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Communism is “cool” in the land where wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt is a hypocritical political statement made while enjoying capitalist amenities. But we expect them to mature eventually and give up the absurdity that communism has not succeeded because the wrong people were in charge.

As the sorry ramifications of situational morality play out on virtually a daily basis, many of us wonder where this all came from. With no hard edges on ANY concept these days, let alone good and evil, we observe the seeming paradox that with endless shades of gray comes not compromise, but more division! Of course, there is one thing on which we can all agree: money and debt. If I owed you $1000, you would consider yourself cheated unless I paid back every penny. There is a clear standard here. It’s the economy, stupid! Now throw into the mix...

The White House has picked the first female general to head the Air Force in the Pacific, which will make her the first non-pilot to command air power in such a large theater of operation. The Pentagon announced this week that Air ForceLt. Gen. Lori J. Robinson has been nominated for promotion to four-star general and as commander of Pacific Air Forces, the Air Force component of U.S. Pacific Command. It is a major combatant command whose air, ground and naval forces have broad responsibility for security in the Asia-Pacific region. Her nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation.

Google has a penchant for honoring left wing ideologues, facilitators, criminals by including them in their Google Search icon, symbolic of the high regard they have for left wing, liberal scum. Today is no different. July 18, 1918 is the birthday of the man who became the symbol of the African National Congress, served in many positions within the organization.

What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector.

Advancements in technology have fueled this White House's obsession with controlling the message. Jay Carney is free. But not loose – at least so far. After resigning as the press secretary for President Obama on June 20, Carney gave insight into the Obama administration’s handling of classified documents, and responded to criticism that this administration has been the most Orwellian in recent history. “I know — because I covered them — that this was said of Clinton and Bush, and it will probably be said of the next White House,” said Carney in a recent New York Times Magazine interview....

(Reuters) - A Beijing court has ruled against Apple Inc by upholding the validity of a patent held by a Chinese company, clearing the way for the Chinese company to continue its own case against Apple for infringing intellectual property rights. Apple had taken Shanghai-based Zhizhen Internet Technology and China's State Intellectual Property Office to court to seek a ruling that Zhizhen's patent rights to a speech recognition technology were invalid. But the Beijing First Intermediate Court on Tuesday decided in Zhizhen's favour, the People's Daily state newspaper reported on Wednesday.

6 days before tax day liberal Christmas in 2013 Lois Lerner was emailing with one of her fellow cronies and warning them to be careful, “we need to be cautious about what we say in emails”.

The distinguished political philosopher Leo Strauss was supposed to have said that the only two things in life really worth talking about are God and politics. That’s because at a most fundamental level they are inextricably intertwined. A skewed notion of the very nature of God and whether man acknowledges him—or tries to substitute himself for God—is at the crux of the turmoil, fanaticism, and destructiveness of the politics of our day and of much of the last hundred years.This is seen well in two books of the last decade. Robert R. Reilly’s The Closing of the Muslim Mind...