Free Republic

Should teenagers be forced to go to high school? Here’s President Obama from the State of the Union speech on Tuesday: [Obama]: "We also know that when students aren’t allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma. So tonight, I call on every State to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen." Another idea that sounds good as a bullet point in a speech, but not so much in reality.

A day after another deadly mass shooting in the United States and with no gun control legislation in sight, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that “there is a plague upon this nation.” But he admitted action was unlikely. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, reacted to the shooting in his home state by writing, ​“Heidi & I are fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde. We are in close contact with local officials, but the precise details are still unfolding. Thank you to heroic law enforcement & first responders for acting so swiftly.”...

According to Governor Abbott, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos posted 3 status updates to his Facebook page warning of the attacks shortly before killing 21 people and shooting his grandmother in the face. 30 minutes before the shootings, he wrote the following: – “I’m going to shoot my grandmother.” – “I shot my grandmother.” – “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.” According to reports, Ramos’ grandmother is still alive and in critical condition. Ramos also posted photos to Instagram before he carried out the deadly shooting.

What happened Shares of cruise line stocks plunged in trading on Tuesday as the market continues to grapple with economic uncertainty. . So what The news continues to be murky at best with companies warning of slowing sales in a variety of sectors, consumers experiencing inflation, and the Federal Reserve continuing to indicate that it will keep raising interest rates. Today's news was that Snap is experiencing far slower advertising spending in just the last few weeks than expected and that indicates companies from direct response retailers to gaming companies to big brands are pulling back on their spending. This...

PARIS -- It was inevitable that sooner or later, leading European countries would start distancing themselves from the aggressive rhetoric that has been the hallmark of the European Union leadership's approach to the armed conflict in Ukraine. Last week in Turin, Italian Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio presented a four-point peace plan to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who made contact with Moscow and Kyiv in visits a few weeks ago. Di Maio also chaired the group of Europe's foreign ministers at a meeting in Turin, including those of other EU countries which have recently shown interest in de-escalating...

In defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pro-abortion stances, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough suggested Tuesday that Jesus Christ was not against abortion. The MSNBC host accused pro-life activists of “dragging the politics of abortion up into the altar of the church,” noting that the Southern Baptist Church, to which he says he belongs, was “effectively pro-choice until 1980.” “This wasn’t about Jesus. It was about politics. That was the rise of the moral majority in 1980, bringing abortion politics into the pews of Republican-leaning churches,” he said. Scarborough then claimed that Jesus “never once mentioned” abortion in the gospels, though most religions...

Russian troops are using social media channels to discuss the war, despite potentially punitive punishments. The Kremlin won’t like it. By May, the entire Russian army had begun to feel the strain of the war. The high casualties sustained by the troops, and the fact that the best units were already deployed in Ukraine, became the hot topic of conversation not only among the liberals and journalists, but among the military too. The May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square figured extensively in those conversations – not only because Vladimir Putin shunned the opportunity to swell the military’s ranks...

"In New York," former Gov. Andrew Cuomo bragged on Sunday, "we passed the best (gun control) laws in the nation." Although those laws manifestly did not prevent the mass shooting that killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket on May 14, Cuomo thinks the answer is more legislation of the same sort. Cuomo mentioned a federal "assault weapon" ban, and other politicians have responded to the Buffalo massacre by calling for expanded background checks and more aggressive enforcement of "red flag" laws that aim to disarm dangerous people. But those policies are fundamentally ill-suited to stopping would-be mass murderers from...

Two notorious leftist billionaires funneled millions into some of the same organizations that attacked Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a threat to democracy.

The DPR People’s milita provided evidence that despite having signed international treaties banning their stockpiling and their use, Ukraine still possesses and uses anti-personnel mines, especially in the Donbass. For the seventh year, the Donbass residents live in a state of continuous war. The armed forces of Ukraine use heavy artillery, mortars and shooting weapons. The use of anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by international treaties, by the Ukrainian military is of particular concern. During the briefing of the official representative of the DPR People’ s Militia Eduard Basurin, based on collected photos and video materials, we will show all...

If you’re only dimly aware of the ongoing D.C. criminal trial of corrupt Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann, don’t feel bad. That’s the way they want it, they being the Deep State. On Friday, Hillary’s campaign manager Robby Mook testified under oath. He swore that in the middle of the 2016 presidential campaign, Clinton signed off on secretly handing the corrupt FBI a totally bogus, made-up report on Donald Trump’s alleged communications with the Kremlin through a server for Alfa Bank in Moscow. You see, the fraudulent Steele “dossier” wasn’t the Democrats’ only attempted frame-up of Trump. Hillary et al....

The latest snapshot of the halting count in Pennsylvania’s Republican U.S. Senate primary shows Dr. Mehmet Oz maintaining a 902-vote lead over David McCormick. But with about 10,000 potential votes left to count across all parties and an automatic recount ordered, McCormick’s campaign has shown no appetite for making a concession now. All 67 counties were required to make a report to the Pennsylvania Department of State of their unofficial counts by the close of business Tuesday, along with an accounting of what tallying is still left to complete. Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman said Wednesday those reports showed...

The legacy state-run Palm Beach Post published an editorial, disguised as news, that tries to influence school board races, hurt republican candidates, Gov. DeSantis, and support the awful Palm Beach County School Board. Let’s start with the headline, “With Ron DeSantis stoking culture war issues, school boards emerge as major Florida battleground.” That’s an opinion headline. The only fact in that headline is that school board races are a battleground in Florida, but since school board races have been and are a battleground all over the country, throwing in Gov. DeSantis is a tawdry little attack by cowards who hide...

I don’t mean to minimize a big win for sane Republicans by sharing credit for it with Democrats. Brian Kemp and especially Brad Raffensperger prevailing without runoffs is the most encouraging thing to happen in GOP elections since… I can’t even think of the last encouraging thing. Sometime in the Before Times. Anyone inclined to cite last night as proof that Trump is losing his grip on the party, though, should bear in the mind that we have yet to see a truly anti-Trump Republican win anywhere this year. Raffensperger himself is the closest thing, but even Raffensperger won’t rule...

“He was kind of a weird one. I never got along with him. I never socialized with him. He doesn’t talk to nobody,” Juan Alvarez said. The man who opened fire in a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, massacring 19 children and two adults, was a loner who kept to himself and avoided any kind of conversation, according to the boyfriend of the gunman’s mother. The shooter, identified by multiple law enforcement sources as Salvador Rolando Ramos, indiscriminately opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 80 miles from San Antonio. He was killed by an off-duty agent with...

Energy, Currencies and Inflation: Worse for Some by Peter Zeihan on May 25, 2022 In the worlds of finance, trade, economies, currencies and energy there is a lot going on. We’ve a war in Ukraine that will likely generate the largest oil dislocation in modern history. The global Baby Boomer generation is retiring and taking their money with them, generating the largest financial dislocation in modern history. Presidents Trump and Biden are following the same script on trade issues, generating the largest trade dislocation in modern history. And the Federal Reserve is tightening monetary policy in an effort to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer swiftly set in motion a pair of firearms background-check bills Wednesday in response to the school massacre in Texas. But the Democrat acknowledged Congress’ unyielding rejection of previous legislation to curb the national epidemic of gun violence. Schumer implored his Republican colleagues to cast aside the powerful gun lobby and reach across the aisle for even a modest compromise bill. But no votes are being scheduled. “Please, please, please damnit - put yourselves in the shoes of these parents just for once,” Schumer said as he opened the Senate. He threw up...

Governor Abbott was discussing the situation and giving updates when gun-grabber Democrat Beto O’Rourke interrupted the presser. Abbott was flanked by several state leaders on the stage. When Beto started shouting and pointing at Abbott one member on the stage started screaming back at him. Audience member: Sit down!… I can’t believe you’re a sick son-of-a-bitch to make a political statement at a time like this.” They don’t go for those sick Democrat politics in Texas. Beto was whisked away by security and left the room a few moments later.

An egghead at the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, writing in a peer-reviewed domestic journal, has advocated for Chinese military capability to take out Starlink satellites on the grounds of national security.According to the South China Morning Post, lead author Ren Yuanzhen and colleagues advocated in Modern Defence Technology not only for China to develop anti-satellite capabilities, but also to have a surveillance system that could monitor and track all satellites in Starlink's constellation."A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation's operating system," the...

Beto O'Rourke was marched out of a press conference for the Texas school shooting on Wednesday and branded a 'sick son of a b****h' after showing up to heckle Republicans about gun reforms. O'Rourke yelled out after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blamed mental health crisis for the shooting of 19 kids and two teachers yesterday. His comments were inaudible but he was immediately surrounded by sheriffs to be shepherded out of the building. Governor Greg Abbott was giving an update on the investigation into yesterday's shooting when O'Rourke interrupted, yelling The governor had just completed a speech about the mental...