Free Republic

There was a plane crash last night in Iran which killed 176 people. The crash happened just a couple hours after the Iranian attack on Iraqi bases where Americans are stationed. Iranian state TV attributed the crash of the Ukrainian airliner to mechanical problems, however, the NY Times is now reporting that aviation experts arenÂ’t so sure. The alleged sequence of events, and a video of the crash raise questions about whether this might have been an attack of some kind: Though the evidence remained sketchy, aviation experts said that what was known indicated that the plane could have been...

They just wanted to do the right thing. The small town of Middletown, Ohio, a town of 49,000 people, has opened all manner of homeless services. There is everything from soup kitchens and shelters that allow you to be high and drunk to rehab facilities to sober up. And that's the problem. You can come to Middletown to stay drunk and high and get three hots and a cot without having to do much. Now the homeless are swamping the town. Residents who call Middletown home are shocked that "about 75%" of the homeless are from someplace else, according to...

Joe Biden said he “100 percent” supports a national ban on plastic bags. Here’s the key exchange: Voter at town hall: “When I go back to Kenya, we don’t even use plastic bags or plastic papers. It’s not allowed, because we are trying to clean the ocean. And I think here in America, we are not trying to do that, to support the environment. And so, what’s your view? I mean, what’s your focus? Because in Kenya, we are trying to clean the environment. No plastic bags, you go with your own bags.” Biden: “Well I agree with you 100...

A group of women whose lives were ruined after being coerced into participating in pornography has just gotten some small measure of vindication in a civil suit against the pornographers. According to The Washington Post, a California judge has tentatively ordered a pornography company to pay $13 million to 22 young women after ruling that they were tricked and inappropriately pressured to make the videos which did not, as promised, stay offline. The ruling, given last Thursday, was the latest development in the women’s years-long legal battle against the owners of GirlsDoPorn, a San Diego-based business that made millions producing...

Just when it seemed as though the transgender movement was reaching a fever-pitch and it was becoming impossible to stand up to the zealous mob of trans-enthusiasts, it appears some celebrities may have found the secret to shutting them down and evading the dreaded “cancel culture” imposed on anyone who dares speak truth or reason. Perhaps this culture battle is not all but lost after all. Back in December, famed author J.K. Rowling tweeted her support for Maya Forstater, a former tax expert who lost her job at think tank Center for Global Development for declaring that men and women...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that President Trump's impeachment trial will be modeled after that of Bill Clinton, and that means the question of calling witnesses will be addressed as the trial proceeds -- "and not before the trial begins." McConnell described a "Phase One" of the trial, which would include arguments from both the prosecution and the defense -- "and then a period of written questions" from senators, who are not allowed to speak during the trial.

At the end of 2009, the total federal debt was $12.3 trillion—a staggering amount of money. Now, it stands at an astonishing $23.1 trillion. That’s roughly $180,500 of debt for every U.S. household. It is important for Americans to understand how we got here, and what lawmakers can do to bring back fiscal sanity. Poor Handling of the Financial Crisis The federal government entered the 2010s with sky-high annual deficits. This had two primary causes. First, the Great Recession reduced incomes and profits, which meant a sharp decrease in tax revenue. A slow economic recovery kept tax revenue relatively low...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - WA federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to set aside an injunction blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a rule that would withhold green cards from immigrants likely to require government assistance such as Medicaid or food stamps. In a brief order, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan also set an expedited schedule for the White House’s appeal of a lower court ruling against the rule, with legal papers to be submitted by Feb. 14 and oral arguments to be held soon afterward. The “public charge” rule unveiled last year would make it...

Qassem Soleimani to the millions of people of Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Middle East, was known as the butcher of families & the destroyer of cities. But for the Democrats, he was innocent and President Trump was the one that killed an innocent man, but the forget that Soleimani was responsible for at least 600 US soldier deaths in Iraq. It seems that people in Iran are a lot braver than we think. A recent Twitter video shows a brave woman tears down a “Death to America” poster. The crowd is heard chanting, “Death to the dictator,” in a...

SAN FRANCISCO — Since the 2016 election, when Russian trolls and a tsunami of misinformation turned social media into a partisan battlefield, Facebook has wrestled with the role it played in President Donald Trump’s victory. Now, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times, a longtime Facebook executive told employees that the company had a moral duty not to tilt the scales against Trump as he seeks reelection. On Dec. 30, Andrew Bosworth, head of Facebook’s virtual and augmented reality division, wrote on his internal Facebook page that, as a liberal, he found himself wanting to use the...

Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna claimed Tuesday that there were no embassy protests or dead American contractors during the Obama administration. Khanna appeared on Fox New’s “America’s Newsroom” and argued that President Donald Trump was out of line to suggest that former President Obama could have acted to stop terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani.

Good morning. I'm pleased to inform you: The American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. ... For far too long -- all the way back to 1979, to be exact -- nations have tolerated Iran’s destructive and destabilizing behavior in the Middle East and beyond. Those days are over. Iran has been the leading sponsor of terrorism, and their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the civilized world. We will never let that happen. Last week, we took decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist from threatening American...

Despite Yale’s push for increased diversity among faculty members — specifically with regards to demographic categories such as race, gender and sexual orientation — several members of the University community voiced their concerns about the lack of political diversity. According to data from the Office of Institutional Research, the faculty gender gap is shrinking. Since 2006, the percentage of female Faculty of Arts and Sciences members has grown from roughly one-quarter to one-third. Yale faculty have also grown racially diverse over the years. But conservative professors criticized what they saw as a lack of effort to recruit a faculty body...

TEHRAN—In a bid to cut costs and save time, Iran has announced that its 24/7 state propaganda station will be replaced with an MSNBC broadcast. The decision to broadcast MSNBC instead of official state propaganda came after an MSNBC reporter parroted the false claims of the Iranian government after yesterday's rocket attacks. "Why spend so much time creating propaganda to brainwash our people when MSNBC could do it for us?" a representative for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said to reporters. "It takes a lot of work to put together news broadcasts that obscure the truth and tell the masses...

Hard-left Labour contender Rebecca Long Bailey was ridiculed last night after giving Jeremy Corbyn ‘10 out of 10’ for his leadership. The party’s business spokesman lavished praise on the outgoing leader during her campaign launch despite him overseeing Labour’s worst election defeat since 1935. She refused to distance herself from his failed manifesto and insisted the party needed a ‘proud socialist’ to take over.

Two dozen people have been arrested for allegedly setting brush fires intentionally that have displaced thousands of people and destroyed wildlife in Australia in recent weeks. "As inquiries continue, police are appealing to the community to provide footage and/or images from phones, dashcam, or other devices that show any of the fires in their infancy, even if only from a distance," police said in a statement. The fires have killed 18 people and destroyed hundreds of millions of animals and livestock, thousands of homes, and more than 4.9 million hectares of land. Those charged with arson could face harsh penalties,...

You can be forgiven if you failed to notice a milestone in Wisconsin Tuesday, since it was about as nondescript and forgettable as the man who marked it. Governor Tony Evers celebrated one year in office with, I don’t know, some warm milk and a nap maybe? It would be fitting for a Governor elected with a shrug, inaugurated with a blank stare, and who has governed with palms outstretched as if to say, “Well, what do you want me to do?” The answer has been next to nothing, as Evers’ first year in office has been about the least...

City police in the capital Kiev has brutally beaten activists who came to the meeting by Russian blogger advertising benefits of possible Russian occupation. In Kiev the police officers violently arrested two activists of the patriotic movement "Vidsich" who came to the convention center to disrupt the mass gathering organized by the Russian blogger Alexandra Mitroshina who previously visited occupied Crimea without valid Ukrainian visa and brasenly ridiculed the question by activists: 'Is Crimea Ukraine?' . As announced on the Facebook page of "Vidsich" the incident occurred at a meeting by Russian blogger, ex-journalist of a propaganda TV channel "Russia"...

Stocks rose on Wednesday after President Donald Trump spoke about an attack by Iran on an Iraqi airbase that houses American troops, which had led to a massive sell-off in overnight trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 213 points, or 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% and hit an all-time high. The S&P 500 also climbed 0.7% and hit a record high as well. Trump said Iran appeared to be “standing down” after that nation attacked the Ain al-Asad airbase overnight. However, he added the U.S. will “immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime.” “Now, as...

LINCOLN, Neb. – Lincoln Police arrested a man who reportedly punched a driver during a road-rage attack before being hit with a tire iron near 14th and Fletcher on Tuesday. (snip)officers were called to the area of 14th and Fletcher on a report of people fighting. Police arrived and found a 29-year-old man, his 31-year-old girlfriend, and their four children were there and the man had injuries from being assaulted. He told officers it started at 14th and Saunders streets when a 2016 black Honda Civic tried to cut him off. The victim wouldn’t let the vehicle in, so the...