Free Republic

The greatest threat to American democracy today is not a repeat of January 6, but the possibility of a stolen presidential election. Contemporary democracies that die meet their end at the ballot box, through measures that are nominally constitutional. The looming danger is not that the mob will return; it’s that mainstream Republicans will “legally” overturn an election. In 2018, when we wrote How Democracies Die, we knew that Donald Trump was an authoritarian figure, and we held the Republican Party responsible for abdicating its role as democratic gatekeeper. But we did not consider the GOP to be an antidemocratic...

Discussion of recent controversy concerning gay men's chorus singing they are after children. As they say here, when the evil side tells you who they are, believe them.

Trouble is brewing on the European gas market. In the wake of a long, cold winter, natural gas reservoirs are unusually low and should, in principle, be refilled very quickly. Russia’s state-owned corporation Gazprom could increase supplies. The market leader, however, has not done that, despite prices recently reaching a 13-year high. In turn, there is growing concern across Europe that there may be insufficient gas supplies for the upcoming winter. Gazprom has not booked any additional gas transit through Ukraine in July, although deliveries of Russian natural gas to the EU will drop by more than 2 billion cubic...

The Modern Survivalist LIVE STREAM NOTIFICATION - Matt Bracken and Host Fernando Aguirre Broadcast from Spain and Florida, U.S.A. Join us today as we talk with Matt Bracken about current events and how to be better prepared! Make sure to join early and leave your questions in the chat section. Always a fast-moving show. Wide-ranging discussions include emerging global issues, US military degradation, national cultural instability, attacks on freedom from the left and recent news stories. A good resource for ideas to prepare for possible events and for equipment evaluations and suggestions. Subscribed listeners can ask questions in the comments...

The official declaration of a global pandemic last spring brought with it a short-lived sensation of optimism: the virus showed us that we could do things differently. EU officials agreed: they said that in distributing EU recovery funds, they wanted to avoid repeating the mistakes made after the 2008 financial crisis when billions of euros of public money went to bailing out the fossil fuel industry. […] Now EU pandemic recovery funds are set to start flowing in the second half of July. With climate crises increasingly becoming a daily reality around the world, will the fossil fuel industry be...

[h/t Qiviut (Faith is the antidote to fear. Mindset: be a victor, not a victim.)]Are Pfizer and Moderna misleading the public about the efficacy of their COVID vaccines by withholding the fact that there’s another way to parse their data — one that has more real-world significance?In 1954, writer and repentant cigarette industry lobbyist Darrell Huff wrote the best-selling book, “How to Lie with Statistics,” with the aim of teaching the general public how to decode the “secret language of statistics.”In his introduction, Huff wrote: “Averages and relationships and trends and graphs are not always what they seem.” He added:...

The annual cost of gender-based violence against women in the EU has been estimated at €290 billion, according to a study by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) on Wednesday (7 July). Intimate partner violence, which has risen considerably during the pandemic, makes up more than half of the cost of gender violence (at €151 billion). Gender violence refers to any physical, sexual or psychological harm to women. These results are around one third higher than previous estimates — partly due to a higher incidence and a change in the methodology. One in three women in the EU aged...

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have won an award for their decision to have no more than two kids. In light of UN’s World Population Day on July 11, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were given the award by Population Matters. The UK charity campaigns to achieve a sustainable human population and said it was an “enlightened decision” by the pair, parents to two-year-old son Archie and newborn daughter Lilibet. The charity sees population growth as a major contributor to environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, and climate change, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are helping to...

A "sickening" viral video has emerged that shows a young boy desecrating the American flag while his mom watches. The child is seen ripping an Old Glory out of someone's yard and then dumping it on the ground. The short clip has spread quickly across social media, igniting a firestorm of strong reactions on the internet.

""Trump Supporter Charlie Kirk Reveals Lt. Michael Byrd as Shooter of Ashli Babbitt in a TV First (VIDEO)"" On Sunday morning Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk dropped a bomb on Sunday Morning Futures. Kirk was the first personality to name-drop Lt. Mike Byrd as the killer of US veteran Ashli Babbitt on January 6th in the US Capitol. The Gateway Pundit was first to report last week on the identity of Lt. Byrd as the shooter after months of Capitol Police refusing to disclose the name of the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt dead on Jan. 6. Charlie Kirk...

USS Missouri at sea in her 1980s configuration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa-class_battleship?wprov=sfti1 At the link, the top of the page starts wtih specifications. Scrolling down the page you find black and white photos (1944, Kamikaze attack, General Douglas MacArthur signing Japanese Surrender in Tokyo Bay etc.) An additional 35 photos linked at the bottom continue this series. I really liked a little video clip in the first comment beneath the post. If you click on it you can enlarge the video and turn the sound up to hear a tiny fraction of the immense sound of the guns as they fire. Here's...

Former President Trump all but told FNC's Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures" that he is going to run for president again in 2024. "I do know my answer, but I can't reveal it yet," Trump teased. "That has to do with campaign financing and everything else, so I can't reveal it yet." "We're gonna do very well and people are going to be very happy," he noted. "Look, you know, I look at the ratings of CNN... they're down 79%... I think they're going to come out and endorse me." Related

You could see it written all over Soledad O’Brien’s face. In her interview with the sitting Vice President she asks a simple question about the efficacy of IDs for voters. The word salad that came back from Kamala Harris was so inane, lacking in general coherency and mortifyingly insulting, the BET cameras caught a glimpse of an expression on the interviewer’s face that screamed, “why me?” This revelation from Harris’ sit down with BET capped off a bizarre weekend in which it was also revealed that she’s “far too busy” to deal with all the areas of focus she’s taken...

A Michigan mayor is facing fire after he used campaign money to fund a portion of his daughter’s wedding, according to reports. Mayor LeRoy Burcroff from Romulus, Mich., acknowledged that he used campaign funds to the sum of $4,500 to pay for an open bar at his daughter’s wedding.

Soprano Diana Damrau sings 'Der Hölle Rache', the famous Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute, with Dorothea Röschmann as Pamina. Mozart wrote Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) for a suburban theatre in Vienna, the Theater auf der Wieden. He drew on the magical spectacle and earthy comedy of popular Viennese theatre. As well as being a comedy, The Magic Flute is an expression of Mozart’s profound spiritual beliefs: Enlightenment concerns with the search for wisdom and virtue are at the heart of this enchanting tale. The Magic Flute was an instant success with audiences and Mozart’s...

A Dewitt police officer is on paid administrative leave following an altercation at a Walmart in East Syracuse. A controversial social media post shows the officer punching a woman in the face on July 4th in the store on Basile Road. Town of Dewitt officer, Rory Spain, whose been on the force three years, is on leave until an internal investigation is complete. You can watch the viral video with a slow-motion below:

In this morning’s mail I received a fund raising request from Ted Cruz stating that he has officially introduced legislation to add a Term Limits Amendment to the Constitution. Now, I’ve been preaching term limits for about thirty years (see my tagline), so it definitely got my attention. BUT...this mailing is the first I’ve heard about the proposal. Have any other FReepers seen it reported?

The grisly killing of a Los Angeles rapper was captured live on Instagram after the hip-hop artist and alleged gang member began streaming moments before his death. According to reports, 21-year-old Zerail Dijon Rivera, who goes by the name ‘Indian Red Boy’, was sitting in his car with a friend in Hawthorne, a city in Los Angeles County, California, when gunshots began to ring out. Rivera, who was livestreaming at the time, was struck in the face, according to local media reports. In the video, the young rapper reportedly mumbles “get help” before slumping over. Those who saw the horrific...

A seven-point plan of how to reinstate Donald Trump as president ‘in days, not years’ allegedly circulated at the CPAC in Dallas this weekend. The so-called ‘Trump Card’ details that the former president’s best chances of retaking his seat in the Oval Office before the 2024 election is by getting him placed in the House Speakership post and ultimately leading Congress in impeaching and removing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from office. Here’s the card: The Patriots SOAR card prompts readers to visit a 13-page document online, where a letter from Robert J. Antonellis (pictured below) details...

After a year of lockdown, museums, libraries and bookstores across America are reopening. This cultural reawakening’s beginning coincided with both the Juneteenth holiday and the one-year anniversary of the one of the largest protests in American history against racial injustice. As bookstores reopen, many are organizing displays of children's books that celebrate Black history. What you won’t find in even the biggest collections of books is the story of the dark-skinned early people who launched human civilization.