Free Republic

Barack Obama’s antipathy toward Israel during his two terms was unprecedented at the time, but it looks like Joe Biden is going to give him a run for his money. As PJM’s Robert Spencer noted earlier, Joe Biden “has pointedly refrained from calling the head of the government of our most reliable ally in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” which could be an ominous warning that relations with our most important ally in the Middle East over the next four years will experience some major setbacks. In his first three weeks in office Biden has spoken with...

Designed during the Second World War by Hawker Aircraft, the Sea Fury was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy and has the distinction of being one of the fastest production single reciprocating engines built. While few of the aircraft remain today, around a dozen are known to have been modified for air racing, while others remain in use on the air show circuit.

I was as outraged as any member of Congress. But senators take our own oaths. Our job wasn’t to find some way, any way, to inflict a punishment. The Senate’s first and foundational duty was to protect the Constitution. Some brilliant scholars believe the Senate can try and convict former officers. Others don’t. The text is unclear, and I don’t begrudge my colleagues their own conclusions. But after intense study, I concluded that Article II, Section 4 limits impeachment and conviction to current officers.

She’s called “Perseverance” and after a 140 million mile journey, will land on the planet Mars on Thursday, February 18.That is, if all goes well.In truth, even getting to Mars has proven to be a fraught enterprise. Roughly half of the 49 missions sent to Mars by all nations have failed. The U.S. has a pretty good record of successes, but the failures have been notable. The Mars Climate Orbiter was supposed to reach Mars in 1999, but burned up in the atmosphere of the red planet when software instructions to the engines were discovered to have been written using...

“Will you remember that, Texas?” That was President Donald Trump’s question in the last presidential debate after Joe Biden said he wanted the oil industry to start transitioning to renewable energy. Trump saw this as a gotcha moment, perhaps because Texas is easily the nation’s top producer of oil and natural gas. But Texas also is No. 1 in wind generation, and solar capacity is coming on fast. Here’s another sign of energy’s evolving times: Vistra Corp., the state’s largest electricity generator, is retiring coal plants and investing heavily in solar power and storage batteries. Most of the initial spending,...

Those of a certain age will recall the scene in “The Wizard of Oz” with Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion fearfully looking around in the forest and chanting “Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”There are lots of lions and tigers and bears in contemporary American politics, if recent surveys are to be credited:On the Right, there’s the QAnon conspiracy that has former President Donald Trump battling an evil ring of wealthy, power-hungry Democratic pedophiles for control of America.On the Left, there’s Trump again, but in this sinister telling,...

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California was named chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Immigration Subcommittee on Sunday. He is the first Latino to hold the seat. The appointment grants Padilla jurisdiction over key immigration issues. The Senator from California said he plans to restore humanity, dignity and respect to the immigration process, according to his statement.

Democrats and their labor union big-money donors hate the gig economy, where people work as independent contractors, doing as much or as little work as they wish, setting their own hours, providing their own workspace and equipment, and getting paid in full directly with no fringe benefits. There are roughly 10.6 million independent contractors in the U.S. today, and labor unions want them changed into prospects for unionization by forcing them and their employers to revert to full-time employee status, with less flexibility, much higher overhead, and non-cash compensation costs.California, a one-party state dominated by Democrats, tried to force such...

Mitch McConnell made a subtle dig at Donald Trump as he branded Republicans' losses in the Georgia Senate runoff election a 'fiasco'. The Republican alluded to the former president's baseless claims of voter fraud which tainted much of the lead-up to the crucial votes and is thought to have helped suppress GOP votes. Trump's refusal to concede split the party ahead of the runoff which resulted in the Republicans losing their Senate majority. McConnell told The Wall Street Journal: 'Georgia was a fiasco. We all know why that happened. 'Getting candidates who can actually win in November,' is the priority,...

Two days removed from his second impeachment acquittal, former President Donald Trump was returning from a day of golf when he was greeted by a throng of flag-waving fans as he neared his Mar-a-Lago estate. The President's Day scene in West Palm Beach, Fla., which included jubilant supporters with signs that declared "Trump won," even impressed Dan Scavino, a veteran of many of his boss' sold-out rallies. "This is unbelievable," the longtime aide tweeted Monday. The spontaneous event was a not-so-subtle reminder that the Twitter-banished, twice-impeached 45th president remains a continuing force inside the GOP. Anyone who thinks otherwise does...

There are currently two dominant narratives about K-12 education in America: The first is the fact that many teachers in huge urban school districts are refusing to return to their classrooms. The second is the fact that the schools that are back in business are using their power over people’s children to indoctrinate both the children and their families in hard-left ideologies, especially about race and sexuality.In many Republican-run regions across America, schools are back in session and nothing bad has happened. There hasn’t been a mass teacher or student die-off. Instead, the kids are once again learning and socializing...

A new Rice University study points out that Texas’ environment — which produces sufficient wind and solar power — is ideal to greatly reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. The report should open politicians’ eyes to the potential for a Green New Deal to boost the nation’s economy by creating alternative energy jobs. The Rice study said with better integration of the state’s wind and solar resources Texas would no longer need coal, which currently produces about 25 percent of the state’s electricity. Natural gas generates 45 percent. “Wind and solar are easily capable of picking up the slack,”...

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may have learned a painful lesson about straddling the political fence. After he strongly rebuked President Trump, accusing him of inciting the January 6 riot, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in turn, rebuked McConnell, accusing him of dereliction of duty, for not casting (non-decisive) vote to convict Trump on impeachment. McConnell should know that trying to please both sides does not work — it only makes enemies of both. In politics, there is a legitimate role for compromise, but only if both sides engage in good faith. The Democrats have discovered, much to their delight, that they...

When it comes to pizza, toppings are incredibly important. No matter how good the crust and sauce are, it doesn’t matter if a terrible topping is added to the pizza. A new survey says that it has determined America’s least favorite pizza topping, according to a post on YouGov.com. The results are based on a poll that included 6,000 adults from the United States. According to the results, America’s most disliked topping is anchovies. The small fish has a big taste and is often the butt of bad-pizza-topping jokes. While people not liking anchovies on pizza may not be surprising,...

“ Our purpose is to mobilize support for a new long-term care facility visitation policy by the New Jersey Department of Health (and the US), given COVID vaccinations. Please end one year of debilitating isolation and reunite families.” “ This page is the hub of a week-long advocacy effort from March 8 to 13 throughout New Jersey to send a peaceful, passionate, and powerful message to the New Jersey Department of Health. “What’s the plan to end our loved ones living in isolation given vaccinations?”

... Q: Do you think plant-based and lab-grown meats could be the full solution to the protein problem globally, even in poor nations? Or do you think it’s going to be some fraction because of the things you’re talking about, the cultural love of a hamburger and the way livestock is so central to economies around the world? A: For Africa and other poor countries, we’ll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them. Weirdly, the US livestock, because they’re so productive, the emissions per pound of beef are dramatically less than...

Another new COVID-19 variant has been detected in the US, UK and other countries, according to scientists. The B1525 variant is similar to B117 — the highly contagious strain found in Britain in mid-December that’s since made its way to the US, the Guardian reported. The new variant has popped up in 10 countries so far, including Denmark, the US, Nigeria and Australia. Thirty-two cases have been reported in the UK. No cases of the new mutant have so far been reported in the US.

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Today, December 4, is the feast of Saint Clement of Alexandria who, though little remembered today, was lauded in antiquity for his combination of erudition and sanctity. Theodoret, the Christian historian of the mid-5th century, deemed Clement a man who, "surpassed all others and was a holy man." Saint Jerome included Clement in his work, On Illustrious Men, saying, "he is the author of notable volumes, full of eloquence and learning, both in sacred Scripture and in secular literature." The life of Clement, whose full name was Titus Flavius Clemens, straddled the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD. He...

How a leading corporation knowingly organized all six phases of the Holocaust. Twenty years ago this week, my book, IBM and the Holocaust exposed with crystal clarity—backed up with a literal tower of physical documentation—that IBM knowingly organized all six phases of the Holocaust: identification, exclusion, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination, all under the micromanagement of its celebrated CEO, Thomas Watson, Sr., operating from his New York office on Madison Avenue, and later through European subsidiaries. Without IBM, there would have always been a Holocaust of hundreds of thousands. Einsatzgruppen murder squads and their militia cohorts would still have...