Free Republic

Property owners and investors in Joburg's inner city say the increase in the hijacking of buildings by illegal occupants is costing them millions.

There are two sorts of menace to the stability of our constitutional democracy. One is from without. It lies in the danger of the results of open warfare against this country, invasion by a foreign enemy and the subjection of our citizens and our institutions to the tyranny of a militarist autocracy. [] We have ultimately little to fear from the effects of any menace by a foreign enemy, whether such enemy shall at any time appear in the form of Mexican banditti, or of the yellow peril of the Orient, or of Spanish tyranny, or of the yet barbarous...

Anti-market and pro-socialist rhetoric is surging in headlines (see also here, here, and here) and popping up more and more on social media feeds. Much of the time, these opponents of markets can’t tell the difference between state-sponsored organizations like the International Monetary Fund and actual markets. But, that doesn’t matter because the articles and memes are often populist and vaguely worded — intentionally framed in such a way to easily deflect uninformed attacks and honest descriptions of what they are actually saying. In the end, they can all be boiled down to one message: socialism works and is better...

The new American morning shadowed with trepidation; what new crisis will emerge wholly created by this administration that pits one group of Americans against each other? New morals, values, laws and rights are established at the benefit of a few to the detriment of the majority. All the while this is happening we meaninglessly drift away from the norms established in the past as our own history fades away from popular discourse. In the blink of an eye, or in a generation, society itself unravels as it seems today to have lost the ability to retain the qualities that once...

The presence of Marxism in liberation theology is well-known, at least to seminarians who are critical readers. Practically every seminarian reads Gustavo Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation at some point, but most laypeople find it hard to believe that there could have been (and continues to be) a widespread attempt to hybridize Christian theology and Marxism. A new article by Robert D. Chapman in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence begins to connect some dots. In “The Church in Revolution,” Chapman, “a retired operations officer in the Clandestine Services Division of the Central Intelligence Agency,” argues that the KGB infiltrated...

Liberation theology, of which not much has been heard for two decades, is back in the news. But what is not being mentioned is its origins. It was not invented by Latin American Catholics. It was developed by the KGB. The man who is now the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, secretly worked for the KGB under the code name “Mikhailov” and spent four decades promoting liberation theology, which we at the top of the Eastern European intelligence community nicknamed Christianized Marxism. Liberation theology has been generally understood to be a marriage of Marxism and Christianity. What...

Last night, just six weeks after one Chinese farmer Liu Jianguo invested his life savings in the Chinese market, proclaiming "it's a lot easier making money from stocks than farm work," we wondered if it was time for a sequel: It's time for the sequel: how the Chinese farmer bet on stocks and lost everything http://t.co/l1EEAHFiEg— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 28, 2015 A few hours later we find out that it was because as CNBC reported in its sequel, another farmer has lost it all... and more. As CNBC's Eunice Yoon reports, just a few weeks after his glorious gamble...

Kudos to The Leader News for publishing a story on the Bethel United Church of Christ, one of four Houston-area churches performing same sex weddings. In their article “Local church embraces marrying local LGBT couples” The Leader News performed a valuable community service by educating their readership that Bethel United Church of Christ is one of four affiliates in Houston performing same-sex weddings. Teddy Kissell, acting interim pastor, described Bethel United Church of Christ as an “open and affirming” congregation reflective of the community: “There are 14 UCC affiliates in Houston, and the beauty of our denomination is that we...

“It [the Cuban embassy opening] is going to be a celebration on our part,” gushed Gustavo Machin, deputy director for U.S. affairs at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. “Many Americans who have supported the Cuban Revolution will be among the 500 celebrants at the new Embassy.” Despite the innocuous professional title the mainstream media insists on using for Gustavo Machin, he’s actually a KGB-trained Cuban spy who was burnt and booted from the U.S. back in 2003 shortly before the invasion of Iraq. He was among 14 other Cuban spies suspected of trafficking in U.S. military secrets (more on this shortly.) The...

In my current book, Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage, I write of the phenomenon of Communist Party marriages. “Theirs was the first ‘party marriage’ that I observed,” wrote Whittaker Chambers in Witness, describing the decidedly non-sacramental marriage of two of his Communist Party comrades, before writing of his own “party marriages.” From Marx and Engels, to Herbert Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich, to Betty Friedan and Kate Millett, to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, our comrades on the far left have bequeathed a legacy of noxious ideas on marriage and family. Their political-cultural...

For years, the cities have been robbing the suburbs but they now have a scheme that will quickly end in a takeover of the suburbs by a leftist federal government. HUD announced enforcement of its new 377-page rule called the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule which will allow them to move people from poor crime-ridden areas into “wealthy” suburbs. It was announced by leftist Julian Castro Monday. The rule has force behind it. Federal monies will be withheld and lawsuits accusing residents of racism will be filed. Any town that takes federal funds will be transformed. It is not only...

On arrival in La Paz, Pope Francis was presented by Bolivian President Evo Morales with a wooden crucifix carved in the form of a hammer and sickle, the symbol of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Fidel. Had Pope John Paul II been handed that crucifix, he might have cracked it over Evo’s head. For John Paul II had seen up close what communism did — to his country, his church and his people in 45 years of Bolshevik rule. On his arrival in the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega in 1983, Pope John Paul castigated a priest-collaborator who dared to serve that...

In my current book, Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage, I write of the phenomenon of Communist Party marriages. “Theirs was the first ‘party marriage’ that I observed,” wrote Whittaker Chambers in Witness, describing the decidedly non-sacramental marriage of two of his Communist Party comrades, before writing of his own “party marriages.” From Marx and Engels, to Herbert Marcuse and Wilhelm Reich, to Betty Friedan and Kate Millett, to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, our comrades on the far left have bequeathed a legacy of noxious ideas on marriage and family. Their political-cultural...

Barack Obama scolded a reporter at his Wednesday briefing after getting a critical question about the nuclear deal with Iran. CBS News's Major Garrett pressed the president on the imprisonment of Americans in Iran. "As you well know, there are four Americans in Iran—three held on trumped-up charges, according to your administration, one whereabouts unknown. Can you tell the country, sir, why you are content, with all the fanfare around this deal, to leave the conscience of this nation, this strength of this nation, unaccounted for in relation to these four Americans?" Garrett asked. "I've gotta give you credit, Major,...

Full title: "For the record: Pope Francis personally clarifies that he was not offended by Hammer-and-Sickle "crucifix", explicitly acknowledges the Marxism of its Jesuit originator -- and praises him." As expected, Pope Francis held an in-flight press conference on his way back to Rome this Monday. As widely reported by secular media, he made use of this opportunity to personally clarify his thoughts about the Hammer and Sickle "crucifix" (and the medallion, the "Order of Fr. Espinal" featuring a smaller version of the same) that were presented to him by President Evo Morales of Bolivia. Catholic News Agency has, thankfully,...

It wasn’t long ago that hedge funds were preparing for one of the biggest openings into China in years. In November, foreign investors were for the first time able to buy and sell shares listed in the Shanghai market directly. It was a chance to ride the great China bull run. How times have changed. Over the last month, trillions of dollars of value were wiped from the domestic market as stocks plunged by more than a third. The Chinese government has stepped in, issuing a series of increasingly aggressive moves to prop up the market. Hedge funds are now...

His speeches can blend biblical fury with apocalyptic doom. Pope Francis does not just criticize the excesses of global capitalism. He compares them to the “dung of the devil.” He does not simply argue that systemic “greed for money” is a bad thing. He calls it a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.” Having returned to his native Latin America, Francis has renewed his left-leaning critiques on the inequalities of capitalism, describing it as an underlying cause of global injustice, and a prime cause of climate change. Francis escalated that line last week when he made a...

This morning Francis lay the two presidential honours he received Wednesday from President Evo Morales in La Paz, at the feet of Our Lady of Copacabana. One of these featured the hammer and anvil with a carving of a crucifix ANDREA TORNIELLI Santa Cruz de la Sierra Before leaving Bolivia, Francis placed two gifts he received on Wednesday from President Evo Morales at the foot of a statue of Mary. One of these, a chain with a chunky medallion, had the figure of the crucified Christ carved into a wooden hammer and anvil. This image had been drawn by Fr....

When Christendom began to fall in the north and the modern elites started to consolidate power, banking engulfed us, industries formed, and men became more and more debased and enslaved; what was once right and wrong became only Right and Left. The realities of good and bad didn’t change, just our understanding of them. The terms ‘Right and Left’ were given to us during the French Revolution. (The most confusing terminology in our lost world has been handed to us by Leftists. When you bind the language you have control.) Ronald Reagan corrected this orientation for us. ‘Right and left’...

Washington (CNN)Russia currently poses the greatest global threat to the United States, according to the man slated to be President Barack Obama's top military adviser. "Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security," Gen. Joseph Dunford told the Senate Armed Services committee during his confirmation hearing to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. With its large nuclear arsenal, destabilizing role in Ukraine and threat to NATO nations on its borders, Russia presents a significant challenge to the U.S., even as it faces threats like that of ISIS. "If you want to talk about a nation...