Free Republic

As missiles rained down on Kramatorsk last night, killing nine people, including three children, and wounding at least 56 more (see more below), Kyiv did one of the things that Russian President Vladimir Putin hates the most: it celebrated the diversity of its LGBTQ+ community with the Sunny Bunny Film Festival, Ukraine’s first film festival dedicated to queer filmmaking. It was a milestone for the flamboyant and attention-grabbing activist in Ukraine, which despite being more open than Russia, is still conservative when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights. “You’re the first to know!” she exclaimed about her name change, through her...

It seemed like an outpouring of veteran anger against Donald Trump: over a dozen former service members protesting outside Trump Tower. But the reality was more complicated. The protest was actually a coordinated effort, led in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to embarrass her Republican rival for his failed efforts to raise money for veterans. It only looked like a grassroots demonstration. A spokesman for the demonstrators insisted they had no affiliation with any campaign. Later he said the protesters had reached out to the Clinton campaign for press contacts, but that’s all. Then the activist finally admitted that,...

Republican operatives from inside and outside New Hampshire agree: Sen. Ted Cruz is all but doomed to finish below the top tier in the Granite State. The winning coalition Cruz put together in Iowa won't work in New Hampshire, they say, pointing to the fact New Hampshire has the second-lowest rate of church attendance in the country. So the edge that Cruz had among evangelicals isn't particularly applicable there. "I would advise Cruz to skip New Hampshire and go to South Carolina. I believe you shouldn't compete anywhere where it's not a favorable battlefield to win," said Stuart Stevens, a...

‘Playing the Long Game’ It’s a bromance with a payoff—the senator has been developing the billionaire’s support and their aides are even discussing joint events, but if Trump drops out, Cruz aims to clean up.Donald Trump and Ted Cruz’s mutual admiration is turning into a conservative bromance—one that could have a huge strategic payoff for the Texas senator’s presidential campaign.Behind the scenes, Cruz has been methodologically developing Trump’s support. The two candidates have met in person at least five times and talk by phone occasionally. And in the future, they may even hold events together.The two campaigns privately discussed...

The Defense Department released a map last week showing territory where it is has pushed ISIS back, claiming that the terrorist group is “no longer able to operate freely in roughly 25 to 30 percent of populated areas of Iraqi territory where it once could.” This was touted as evidence of success by numerous news outlets. Pushing ISIS back is clearly a good step. But the information from the Pentagon is, at best, misleading and incomplete, experts in the region and people on the ground tell The Daily Beast. They said the map misinforms the public about how effective the...

Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI) accidentally proved to the Daily Beast he lied on his campaign website and on the campaign trail about his military record as part of an effort to disprove a Breitbart News investigation—and the Daily Beast’s Tim Mak fell hook, line and sinker for the Peters’ campaign’s spin despite being provided with evidence by Peters that Peters lied. “To rebut the Breitbart story, the Peters campaign provided The Daily Beast with a document signed by a commanding officer showing that the candidate qualified as a Seabee Combat Warfare Specialist on August 5,...