Free Republic

Former national security adviser John Bolton called the political philosophy of former President Trump “performance art” as Bolton mulls a potential 2024 presidential bid. Bolton, who served in the Trump administration from 2018 to 2019, told NBC’s Ali Velshi on Saturday that the “fundamental point in politics is philosophy.” “Everything else flows from that. Donald Trump has no philosophy,” Bolton said. “Donald Trump doesn’t think in policy terms. There is no Trumpism. And there is no real succession to Donald Trump.” Bolton said Trump is an outlier in the GOP with no clear vision for the party’s future. “It’s not...

Vladimir Putin is a relative of all royal families of Europe. Russian president Vladimir Putin was a mystery almost for everyone during the moment of his election. He seemed to be a man with no past, inspired with the symbol of the new epoch, but deprived of historic roots. The research, which was conducted by journalists from the Russian city of Tver, became a sensation. As it became known, the parents of the Russian president came from the Kalininsky area of the Tver region. The president’s family tree is not traced after Putin’s grandfather Spiridon Putin, who left the Tver...

The drones were unleashed in the early hours of Monday as many people slept, hitting critical infrastructure in and around Kyiv in Moscow's third air attack on the Ukrainian capital in six days......As a result of the attack , critical infrastructure facilities were damaged,' Vitali Klitschko said. Kyiv's mayor said no one had died or been wounded in the attacks. Hours later, Volodymyr Zelensky urged the leaders of northern European nations to ramp up the supply of air defence systems. A video shows the explosion from a distance, as a blinding flash of light can be seen as the drones...

Bloomberg reporter Lydia Wheeler took an absurd dive into criticism of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh which served to illustrate her apparent entrapment inside a liberal bubble which filters out any news contrary to an authorized narrative. And the narrative she was promoting was an attack upon Kavanaugh on December 12 in "Kavanaugh’s Holiday Party Appearance Renews Supreme Court Ethics Questions."According to Wheeler, Kavanaugh's crime was attending a party hosted by a (GASP!) conservative:

The ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows completely blacked out news on a devastating Federal Reserve report that ravaged President Joe Biden’s propaganda that the economy added 1 million jobs in the second quarter. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve released a Dec. 13 report revealing that its estimates for “the employment changes from March through June 2022 were significantly different in 33 states and the District of Columbia compared” with estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES). Specifically, the report found that only “10,500 net new jobs were added during the period rather than the...

Ain’t this a kick in the … head. Rising mortgage rates courtesy of The Federal Reserve’s tightening to fight Bidenflation has led to a Covid-level plunge in the NAHB Homebuilder Market Index. Everything seems to be going down with a sinking M2 Money growth. And today, the 10-year US Treasury yield is up over 10 bps. Watch out mortgage rates!

The Kremlin dismissed the idea that President Vladimir Putin was travelling to Belarus on Monday in order to push Minsk to take a more active role in the conflict in Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such reports were "groundless" and "stupid".

Independent voters doubt President Joe Biden’s mental fitness and believe he is too old to be president, a Harvard/Harris poll found over the weekend. The poll asked respondents, “Is Joe Biden mentally fit to serve as President of the United States or do you have doubts about his mental fitness for office?” Sixty-four percent of independents doubt Biden’s mental fitness, along with 79 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of Democrats. Overall, 58 percent of respondents said they doubt Biden’s mental ability.

Recently, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen carelessly revealed the devastating cost of the Ukraine war. “It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 Ukrainian military personnel have died to date,” she said. The comment drew sharp backlash and the E.C. later deleted the comments from video recordings of the address. The censorship was left unexplained and demonstrated the confusion of the purveyors of the approved narrative. If Von der Leyen’s estimate is true, that is nearly ten times the number of dead Ukrainian soldiers reported by the Ukrainian government. The E.C. president’s remark shows that even...

A demographic analysis of persons emigrating from New York City found that 16% of of richest taxpayers are leaving each year. The impact on the City's ability to fund government services is becoming severe. Mayor Eric Adams hasn't been idle, but his request for more federal aid doesn't seem likely to be fulfilled. "My recent phone conversation with President Biden was not encouraging," the Mayor lamented. "When I pointed out that we need a replacement for the lost tax revenues he suggested that we confiscate the property of everyone who moves out of the city. He said 'if that doesn't...

The new 'Avatar' movie has already raked in an impressive amount in ticket sales for day 1 of its opening weekend -- but big picture ... it looks like this one's gonna disappoint. James Cameron's 'The Way of Water' -- the long-awaited sequel to 2009's smash hit "Avatar" -- was able to pull in about $53 million Friday (which includes around $17 mil from Thursday previews) ... and, as of now, is on track to make between $130M-$150M through Sunday. That might sound impressive ... but it's actually a bit of a bummer considering the early projections for this were...

Director James Cameron disappointed fans Saturday by ignoring their requests for autographs as he exited the WGA building in Beverly Hills, then flipping them the bird. Video footage shows fans swarming around the famous director in hopes of catching a personal response from him, or getting an autograph, but things didn’t quite turn out the way they expected. The excited buzz from the crowd quickly turned into boos and chants of “fuck Avatar!” when Cameron blew past his fans without stopping to greet or acknowledge them in any way, according to TMZ. He aggravated the situation by sticking his middle...

​Stacey Abrams’ campaign is $1 million in debt –despite raising more than $100 million in her second straight unsuccessful Georgia gubernatorial bid​, according to a report Monday. The Democratic stalwart’s campaign owes the cash to vendors, Axios reported, citing manager Lauren Groh-Wargo. ​ Though Abrams is known for her fundraising and get-out-the-vote skills, the campaign’s 180 full-time staffers got their last paychecks Nov. 15, just a week after Election Day, the report said. “People have told me they have no idea how they’re going to pay their rent in January,” ​a former staffer told ​the outlet. “It was more than...

Eddie Rickenbacker has made it back to Washington and is pictured with family on the front page. Both of his sons will enter military service: oldest David joins the Marines in 1943 and Bill enters the Air Force after college and flies transports during the Korean War… With Rickenbacker is his business partner, Danish-born writer and B-17 pilot Capt. Hans Christian Adamson. He publishes a biography of Reickenbacker after the war. Christmas now just one week away here is the Utility Squadron 7’s Christmas card which is seen on page three… The next page features a story of the Office...

Very insightful (and witty) article. The author "gets" our current dilemma in American government in the following excerpt: In every country in the developed world, representative democracy is dead. In its place, we have oligarchy. The way our oligarchy works is very simple. While hymning “democracy,” it has to disable actual representative democracy. It does this by disabling the control of the chief executive over the executive branch. Broadly speaking, the procedure, budget, and personnel of the agencies is specified by law. Law, of course, comes from the legislative branch. What does it matter if the Founders would never have...

A recidivist burglar was caught rifling through Robert De Niro’s Manhattan townhouse early Monday — fiddling with the actor’s iPad and grabbing Christmas gifts around the tree, law enforcement sources told The Post. The 30-year-old woman, identified as Shanice Aviles, crept down a stairwell leading to 79-year-old De Niro’s townhouse on the Upper East Side around 2:30 a.m., the sources said. Eagle-eyed officers with the NYPD’s 19th Precinct public safety team had spotted Aviles — a “known burglar” with more than 25 arrests on her rap sheet — trying to open doors to commercial buildings before she entered the townhouse,...

Was it the jabs? The question has been popping up more frequently in recent months as young and otherwise healthy people continue to die suddenly with no cause of death listed. The latest victim of the Covid “vaccine” era is a man whose job was to get as many jabs into as many Canadian arms as possible. According to The Gateway Pundit: The Director of Parliamentary Affairs at Health Canada, who oversaw the country’s response to Covid-19 and the rollout of the vaccine, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 35. Adam Exton, a long-time Liberal Party organizer, died suddenly...

Republican lawmakers will take control of the House of Representatives on Jan. 3. That means that, among many other things, they will take control of the House’s investigative committees and subcommittees. GOP leaders have already said they plan to probe the Biden administration’s disastrous policy on the U.S.-Mexico border, the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the disastrous failure to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., and more. There is clearly a lot to investigate. But the topic that will receive the most attention in the media and the political conversation will be the investigation into the...

A lone female burglar has been arrested after allegedly breaking into the Upper East Side townhouse of actor Robert De Niro early Monday morning and bagging up all the gifts spread around the Christmas tree while the Hollywood actor was home, according to police. ABC7 New York reports Shanice Aviles, 30, was arrested on burglary charges after she was spotted entering De Niro’s East 65th Street home at 2:45 a.m. Aviles was being tailed by police because she was wanted in connection with six other burglaries. Police sources described her as a recidivist who had just been arrested December 8....

Drew Griffin, CNN’s award-winning Senior Investigative Correspondent, known for getting even the cagiest of interview subjects to engage in a story, died Saturday after a long battle with cancer, his family said. He was 60. A gifted storyteller, Griffin had a well-earned reputation for holding powerful people and institutions accountable. “Drew’s death is a devastating loss to CNN and our entire profession,” CNN CEO Chris Licht said in a note to staff. “A highly acclaimed investigative journalist, Drew’s work had incredible impact and embodied the mission of this organization in every way.” Griffin worked on hundreds of stories and multiple...