Free Republic

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available

Its The Fed’s Limbo Rock! Except that it is how HIGH can they go? Mortgage rates have soared 71.4% over the past year as The Fed signals tightening of monetary policy. Mortgage applications decreased 6.5 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 3, 2022. This week’s results include an adjustment for the Memorial Day holiday. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 18 percent compared with the previous week and was 21 percent lower...

Nixon's Revenge It’s been a long time since Watergate. For its 25th anniversary, I wrote a book with Peter W. Morgan, originally titled Nixon’s Revenge, on one of Watergate’s most toxic legacies, the proliferation of “ethics rules” and ethics authorities that in practice do anything but promote ethical behavior in government. (The publisher chose a less-provocative title, The Appearance of Impropriety, instead, which I still think was a mistake.) But now 25 more years have passed, and I will not be producing another book. Instead, I offer a few thoughts on Andrew McCarthy’s 50th-anniversary retrospective. McCarthy’s central claim is that...

DETROIT -- Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and dozens of other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop the convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations against him, lawyers said Wednesday. There is no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of assaulting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year. "It is time for the FBI to be held accountable," said Maggie Nichols,...

The author has been interested in the historical costs of .22 rimfire cartridges since childhood. Starting in early adolescence, and continuing for many years, the value of things and time was measured in .22 cartridges. It was a simple calculation, an easy comparison. From that era, 1964 to the present, .22 Long Rifle cartridge list prices, converted to constant unskilled labor dollars, have been fairly stable. The unskilled labor number is based on the time it takes for an unskilled laborer to earn the same purchasing power for a particular year. It took about 146 hours (about two weeks, 12...

Introducing the Rattler chambered in .300 Blackout gives SOF troops a good combination of rifle and round for covert missions in tight spots. U.S. special operators are finally getting ultra-compact personal defense weapons, or PDWs, chambered in .300 Blackout and standard 5.56x45mm ammunition to blast out of tight spots with a wallop similar to a full-size assault rifle. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) on May 19 issued a notice of intent to buy Sig’s MCX Rattler short-barreled rifles as personal defense weapons, or PDWs, under a five-year sole-source contract. No contract has been awarded yet and how many of these compact...

House Oversight Committee Democrats have launched an investigation into the gifts former President Trump received while he was in office, claiming he failed to account for thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts he received from foreign officials. According to the committee, the former president appears to have flouted laws that require turning over any gift deemed to be worth more than $415 — a longstanding practice based on the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which places limits on what the president can receive from foreign governments.

A famous drama coach said, “When the actor you hired begins to believe he’s the character he plays, fire him.” That’s the trouble with Joe Biden. He believes he really is the president of the United States. Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972, at the ripe old age of 29, four years after he graduated from law school -- lots of real-life experience there. Once he had the Democratic nomination in True-Blue Delaware, he was set for life. In Joe’s case, life was 36 utterly undistinguished years. No one can remember a major bill he sponsored that became...

Usually, when people commit unforgivable crimes dealing with children, the perpetrators of such crimes become ‘persona non grata.’ No one wants to know or be associated with them. That is what appeared to take place with ex-CAIR official Ahmad Saleem – who was arrested for soliciting sex from someone whom he believed to be a twelve-year-old girl – until this author discovered that Saleem had been the keynote speaker at what was billed as a ‘Welcome Party’ for boys, at an educational facility in northeast Pakistan. Was hosting this an honest mistake made by the school’s administrators or did they...

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) celebrated news of his early primary victory on Tuesday by declaring his state to be the “antidote” to what ails America — which, in his view, is the Republican Party and the things for which it stands. California also leads the nation in average fuel prices and in poverty. It suffers from electricity blackouts during peak demand periods, thanks to overly ambitious green energy policies that Newsom himself admitted were a problem.

Americans deserve the chance to protect themselves from rampaging mobs and (God forbid) the government itself if tyranny arises. I felt my stomach drop. My barber had just reported to me the news that a Kansas City Police officer had shot and killed a pregnant black woman who was unarmed and in handcuffs, following a routine traffic stop. “That’s murder,” I whispered in my shocked response. Immediately, my mind flashed back to scenes from Kenosha, Wisconsin—during which terrified residents put up signs supporting Black Lives Matter to plead for safety from the mob of arsonists. Would Kansas City soon descend...

Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) declared Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” that America was “under attack today” by the planners of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. O’Donnell said, “What would you suggest as a viewer guide to these hearings? What would you suggest to our audience as the way to watch the hearing?”

Guess whom DHS considers "extremists." That's right: you. DHS is warning of copycat terrorist acts by extremists, especially with the midterm elections coming. Officials say they have seen misinformation inciting violence. Of course, they don't cite examples. It reminds me of the letter from the Justice Department warning about violence at school board meetings and comparing the parents who were showing up to terrorists. When asked for examples of the violence, somehow the A.G. couldn't come up with any. Basically, he regurgitated talking points from the teachers' union and the White House without doing research. It was purely a political...

This may be news to some educators, but they aren't their students' parents. If parents fail to provide for their children, they can face legal consequences. The court systems have recognized parents' rights to raise their children, but that right comes with responsibilities. Parents must feed, clothe, get medical attention, etc. for their children. Yet, more and more, it seems that the government wants to take over parenting while still holding parents accountable for how their children turn out. Over the years, school systems have extended how long they have children for more hours during the day and more grade...

CORINTH, Saturday, June 7. Hon. E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War: Deserters from the enemy report that Forts Pillow and Randolph were evacuated on the 31st ult., and that Flag-Officer DAVIS' flotilla reached Memphis the next day and found the town nearly abandoned and many buildings destroyed. H.W. HALLECK, Major-General. CAIRO, Sunday, June 7. The operator at New-Madrid, telegraphs that the steamer Platte Valley, has passed up from Memphis direct en route to Cairo. Our forces are in undisputed possession of that city. NEW-MADRID, Sunday, June 7. The steamer Platte Valley, has just arrived from Memphis. She reports all quiet there....

Today is primary day — and recall day — in California. I’m writing this on the East coast before any election returns are in. But there is some modest hope of a slight retreat from the worst excesses of progressivism. Joel Kotkin — professor at Chapman University out there — weighs in with a June 5 column at Spiked, sounding a small note of optimism. The headline and sub-headline are “America’s great cities are gripped by decline and disorder. Voters have had enough of ‘progressive’ leaders who are presiding over spiralling violence and crime.” Excerpt: For the past decade, America’s...

There was a major problem with the 2020 Census, and most people probably haven’t heard about it, even though it has enormous implications. At the end of May, the Census Bureau admitted that it miscounted 14 states in the 2020 Census. Why didn’t the media make a big stink about this story? Maybe it was overshadowed by the recent mass shootings, that’s certainly a possibility, but I have another theory. Here are the states that the Census acknowledged it overcounted: Hawaii, Delaware, Rhode Island, Minnesota, New York, and Massachusetts. Here are the states that the Census acknowledged it undercounted: Texas,...

On Monday, I reported about the ongoing investigation into the alleged suicide of former Clinton adviser Mark Middleton, who was found hanged and had s shotgun blast to the chest. I’m sure all suicides happen like that, especially when one is tied to the Clintons. However, news is out now that another woman who drowned, but was found with an extension cord wrapped around her ankle tied to a cement block is facing an outcry for a new inquiry into her death. Kellyanne Richardson reports at Defiant America: Ashley Haynes was found drowned in the Arkansas River with an extension...

The signs of decline are everywhere: violent crimes, corruption, riots, all with little or no consequences for the perpetrators, election fraud, medical mandates for vaccines that do not work. “If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize.” Voltaire The signs of decline are everywhere: violent crimes, corruption, riots, all with little or no consequences for the perpetrators, election fraud, medical mandates for vaccines that do not work. “Doctors put drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all.”...

Americans at the low end of the income rung are once again struggling to make ends meet. A confluence of factors — the expiration of federal stimulus checks and surging inflation on staples like gas and food — are driving an even bigger wedge between the haves and have-nots. While wealthier shoppers continue to splurge, low-income shoppers have pulled back faster than expected in the past two months. They’re focusing on necessities while turning to cheaper items or less expensive stores. And they’re buying only a little at a time. It’s a reversal from a year or so ago when...