Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump is running about dead-even with President Joe Biden among voters, according to a poll published Saturday.The Wall Street Journal poll showed that Trump garnered 40 percent support versus Biden’s 39 percent support in a hypothetical rematch of 2020. While third-party candidates drew three percent, a large portion — 17 percent — were undecided.If other candidates were excluded, Trump and Biden were tied at 46 percent each with eight percent undecided.The poll was conducted August 24-30, with a sample of 1,500 American voters and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.Republican pollster Tony...

This is what Orwellian economics looks like. After Biden announced a campaign based around freedom, the Wall Street Journal’s Richard Rubin decided to write a surreal column/op-ed/story (what is this thing even supposed to be) accusing Republicans of raising taxes by proposing to dump Biden’s corrupt green subsidies and the Inflation Increase Act’s IRS boom. Republicans Effectively Voted to Raise Taxes. They’re Fine With That – WSJ When dealing with the media, any weasel words added to a sentence means that the whole thing is a lie. Now you understand the purpose being served by “effectively” in there. Rubin claims...

Long-held values like patriotism, religion and community involvement are in retreat across America, according to a stunning poll released Monday. The Wall Street Journal/NORC survey found that just 38% of Americans say patriotism is “very important” to them, down from 70% who said the same in 1998. Slightly more Americans (39%) placed the same importance on religion, down from 62% who said faith was “very important” to them 25 years ago. ​The percentage of Americans who said raising children was “very important” fell to 30% in the new poll, down from 59% in 1998.

Economic war with Russia is likely to keep prices high and send growth into reverse but specter of rationing is fading. There is no end in sight for Europe’s surge in energy prices. That could be just what the continent needs to avoid the devastating effects of having to ration natural gas this winter. This is because prices are so high—many times their level from last year—that they are forcing Europeans to save fuel and secure alternative supplies. That has resulted in rising gas reserves and a higher likelihood that the economy will shrink but not crash outright in the...

Ads urge Russians to sign up for military service as authorities turn to prisoners and mercenaries to grow ranks. The Kremlin has embarked on a nationwide drive to recruit new military personnel as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to regain the offensive in Ukraine and replenish some of the estimated thousands of soldiers lost in Russia’s war effort. Six months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow’s military has lost much of what momentum it had but has chosen not to take the politically risky decision to declare a national mobilization.

The conflict in Ukraine is driving a modernization of NATO weaponry, honing the alliance’s ability to face off against Russia and adding to the list of unintended consequences from Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Former East Bloc NATO members have been arming Ukraine with Soviet-designed equipment similar to Kyiv’s existing gear. That has permitted a military housecleaning of their own arsenals on a scale that would have been unimaginable months ago. In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will help its eastern members replace those arms with newer ones, greatly improving efficiency.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a onetime top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testified that former President Donald Trump was warned that members of the crowd attending his rally on Jan. 6, 2021, were heavily armed and still directed them to march toward the Capitol. She also said she was told that Mr. Trump insisted on going to the Capitol with his supporters, even as officials, ultimately successfully, tried to stop him. Ms. Hutchinson recounted a dramatic altercation in the president’s limousine, known as “the beast,” after his Secret Service detail refused to drive him to the Capitol due...

As Russia tries to take the initiative in eastern Ukraine, Moscow has had to find fresh manpower from some unlikely places for what is shaping up to be a crucial phase of the war. Since the beginning of what the Kremlin calls its special military operation, it has tried to pursue its campaign with an army at peacetime strength. The results have been mixed. Though Russian forces have made gains in the east and south of the country, they sustained crushing losses in Moscow’s initial attempt to seize Kyiv, by some counts losing as many soldiers as the old Soviet...

In a secret chat room run by a group of Russian-affiliated cybercriminals, a hacker expressed excitement about a plan to attack and disable more than 400 U.S. hospitals. “There will be panic,” the hacker wrote, in Russian. The hacking enterprise, called the Trickbot Group by federal prosecutors, and its affiliates had already collected hundreds of millions of dollars by shutting down emergency rooms, city governments and public schools since 2018. Security researchers and U.S. officials say the internal conversations amount to the most complete and candid public look yet at the operations of a criminal ransomware enterprise. A malware developer...

Russia’s Push for Self-Sufficient Economy Fails Before Western Sanctions Building Fortress Russia was supposed to protect the country from sanctions. It is still highly dependent on imports. A Uniqlo store in Moscow this month. Sanctions have hit consumers who are used to getting imported products. Russia spent years trying to wean itself off imported goods to fortify its economy against Western sanctions. Now, the impact of sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made it clear that Moscow’s efforts didn’t work. Russia’s continued dependence on imports means it is facing a painful economic readjustment. Parts of Russia’s auto industry...

In order to justify empowering Iran, the United States is pushing a narrative that Israel and Saudi Arabia are equally destabilizing for the Middle East. Israel must be fuming. On March 11, unnamed United States officials released bombshell information to the Wall Street Journal stating that since 2019, Israel has targeted at least a dozen Iranian vessels bound for Syria. The decision to publish the material comes just two weeks after Israel blamed Iran for attacking an Israeli-owned vessel in the Gulf of Oman, and a day before Iran claimed Israel attacked another of its vessels in the eastern Mediterranean....

The Worthless Wall Street Journal is banning its reporters from using the terms “illegal immigrant” and “illegal” when referring to illegal aliens living in the US. In an update in ts style guide, the WSJ, which owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., stated that while it will allow reporters to continue using the term “illegal immigration” to describe the process of illegal aliens arriving and staying in the US, it will no longer allow reporters to describe individuals as “illegal” or “illegal immigrant”. It is, they said, all in an effort to stop “labeling people.”

The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host Alex Jones. Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in exchange for a guaranteed “top speaking slot of his choice,” according to a funding document outlining a deal between his company and an early organizer for the event. Mr. Jones also helped arrange for Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a prominent donor to the Trump campaign and...

Most Americans learn in school about flagship political excesses in U.S. history like Joe McCarthy’s 1950s inquisitions, the post-World War I Red Scare and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Yet a recent Washington Post opinion piece purports to explain “what the 1798 Sedition Act got right.” The law banned a wide range of political speech and publication. It was passed by the ruling Federalists to suppress the rival Democratic-Republicans, whom they saw as seditious. The Post piece argues that though their solution was “flawed,” the Federalists had reason to worry about “unregulated freedom of the press.” We highlight...

One top CATO economist is letting The Wall Street Journal have it for pushing more federal bailouts for states and using liberal spin to justify it. CATO Director of Tax Policy Studies Chris Edwards slammed The Journal for pushing “a biased news story regarding state budgets” in a piece headlined “Error and Spin in Wall Street Journal Budget Article.” The Journal’s story, headlined “Coronavirus-Hit State Budgets Create a Drag on U.S. Recovery,” reflects “only Keynesian thinking, exaggerates the plight of governments, and only quotes analysts in favor of more federal bailouts,” according to Edwards.

WASHINGTON—The National Security Agency strongly dissented from other intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia paid bounties for the killing of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the matter. The disclosure of the dissent by the NSA, which specializes in electronic eavesdropping, comes as the White House has played down the revelations, saying that the information wasn’t verified and that intelligence officials didn’t agree on it.

President Trump issued a symbolic joint statement Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a move that has stirred debate within the Trump administration and spawned concern among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, according to people familiar with the document. The unusual declaration is intended to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a meeting between American and Soviet troops at the Elbe River on April 25, 1945. The broader intent is to underscore how the two nations can put aside their differences for a larger purpose, according to people familiar with its drafting. “The ‘Spirit of the Elbe’ is an example...

U.S. Rep. Max Rose of Staten Island announced his endorsement of Michael Bloomberg’s presidential bid, making Mr. Rose the first member of Congress to back the former New York City mayor’s campaign. Mr. Rose, a Democrat, specifically cited Mr. Bloomberg’s management of the city in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mr. Bloomberg was elected to the first of his three terms as mayor that year. “Mayor Bloomberg’s even-keeled and visionary leadership is what we need to reduce the chaos, partisanship and hyper-vitriol that has overtaken Washington,” Mr. Rose said. “Rather than submit to another stage of...

Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” network political analyst Carl Bernstein said if President Donald Trump asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2020 presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, it is echoed of “Watergate.” Bernstein said, “Well, I think the first thing is to find out exactly what has happened here. And if the reporting of Shane Harris and The Wall Street Journal is accurate and it seems to be it clearly moves toward a grievance abuse of power by the president of the United States.”

President Donald Trump overruled the adamant objections of nearly his entire trade team when he ordered the imposition of 10% tariffs on China's remaining $300 billion of exports to the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Trump, in his decision announced on Twitter Thursday, said China has not made good on a promise to buy American agricultural goods in large quantities, and as a consequence the U.S. would impose new tariffs starting Sept. 1. (please see link, for full story)