Free Republic

Almost two years ago, the Texas energy grid came within minutes of total system failure, leaving 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses without power at its peak. After the storm, it was painfully clear that the makeup of the Texas energy grid must be rebalanced, with an emphasis on electricity generated from cheap, plentiful and reliable natural gas and ensuring the natural gas energy supply chain was better weatherized to ensure operation during extreme weather conditions.

President Joe Biden has quietly continued his predecessor’s America-first tariffs.Free traders on the left and the right routinely excoriated Donald Trump for his willingness to implement tariffs on foreign imports. With the election of Joe Biden in 2020, many hoped the incoming president would reverse the former president’s “protectionist” trade policies and return to free trade orthodoxy. This, however, never happened. In fact, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, just two weeks ago, pushed back against claims made by the World Trade Organization that the Trump-era tariffs violated international trade rules: The WTO is on “very, very thin ice.”President Biden has,...

DENVER (AP) — Javier Guillen just wanted to get to the United States as he endured a three-month trek from Venezuela, hiking through Central American jungles and spending four days clinging to the roof of a Mexican train known as “the beast” to avoid police and kidnappers. But when he finally arrived in El Paso, Texas, last week, the 32-year-old settled on a new destination, only one relatively cheap bus ride away — Denver, an additional 680 miles (1,094 kilometers) north from the border. Over the past month, nearly 4,000 immigrants, almost all Venezuelans, have arrived unannounced in icy Denver,...

The Brunson Brothers election integrity lawsuit was dismissed by the US Supreme Court on Monday.

After last week’s scary moments when Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during the Bills-Bengals Monday Night Football game, I’ve seen and heard a lot more people talk about prayer. I’ve never heard so much talk on ESPN about God and prayer, and it’s such a refreshing thing to see.For starters, witness ESPN football analyst Dan Orlovsky’s heartfelt Tuesday prayer for Hamlin.This isn’t some boilerplate, half-hearted prayer. Orlovsky, a devout Christian, prayed earnestly for comfort, healing, and peace in a way that viewers could tell that he meant it.“It was on my heart,” Orlovsky told the Associated Press after his...

There is nothing so unnerving as government-initiated election fraud, perpetrated by both political parties, hiding in plain sight. This is the world we live in — the one Republicans are about to encounter. The most basic ingredient for industrial-scale voter fraud is the voter roll, fat with phantom names and addresses. ;Someone may be able to transport 250,000 paper ballots from New York to Pennsylvania, leave the truck in the parking lot, and find it gone when he returns.Those ballots are useless paper if not tied to an identity at a real address.The hard part is creating people and addresses...

This isn’t Kristi Noem’s first rodeo, and if the powerful Sanford Health has a say, it won’t be her last.It’s curious that in one of the reddest states in the nation, which boasts both a Republican governor and a whopping 90 percent GOP majority legislature, the child-mutilation business would be allowed not only to exist but to flourish. But thanks to Gov. Kristi Noem’s repeated failures to cut ties with radical gender ideology and its proponents, next week two of South Dakota’s government contractors will host a “Midwest Gender Identity Summit” in the Mount Rushmore State.The event — hosted by...

The UK is considering supplying Ukraine with British tanks for the first time to fight Russia's invading forces, Sky News understands. Discussions have been taking place "for a few weeks" about delivering a number of the British Army's Challenger 2 main battle tank to the Ukrainian armed forces, a Western source with knowledge of the conversations said. Such a move would mark a significant step-up in Western support to Ukraine and could help prompt other NATO allies, in particular Germany, to follow suit. ...One source suggested Britain might offer around 10 Challenger 2 tanks, enough to equip a squadron....

As Victoria's Secret goes woke, so goes the bad fortune of its shareholders. This is the story: Victoria's Secret brand CEO Amy Hauk announced that she will be leaving the lingerie giant after a brief stint at the company. "Amy Hauk will be stepping down as CEO of Victoria’s Secret and PINK in order to spend more time with her family in Florida," the company said in a statement to Fox News Digital. The once-loved brand has had a tumultuous few years with an attempted rebranding that implemented "woke" policies like removing the iconic "Angels" models as well as the...

A Georgia woman has been charged with murder for allegedly killing an elderly married couple at a Florida senior living community on New Year’s Eve. Vickie Williams, 50, appeared in court remotely Saturday and was ordered held in the Lake County Jail without bond for the killings of Darryl Getman, 83, and his 80-year-old wife, Shannon Getman in the Watertown Village retirement community in Mount Dora, reported the station KBTX. Williams — who had already been charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle for allegedly stealing the victims’ car — faces two counts of first-degree murder. More than a...

Obviously, the message has not resonated with the federal government that parents are fed up with government dictating what their children are being taught and being told they have no rights as parents. On December 27, the CDC republished a "self-assessment tool" that encourages teachers, administrators, and school health staff to promote LGBT-inclusive "school environments, policies, programs, and practices." The CDC website has an entire section under "For Schools" devoted to "Supporting LGBTQ Youth" that includes professional development for staff. There, under "Tools for Supporting LGBT Youth," is the self-assessment document, "LGBTQ Inclusivity in Schools: A Self-Assessment Tool."The CDC claims...

A cease-fire proposal seemingly aimed at splintering Western unity has instead been met with Western escalation, underscoring Moscow’s diplomatic struggles. ...Analysts typically share this view, saying that such proposals tend to come when a pause would most benefit Russia’s battlefield position, not when they might further peace talks or aid civilians. Sure enough, even as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia promised a unilateral pause in some areas, there was little indication of such on the ground, where fighting continued as normal. This offer was also probably intended as an act of propaganda, aimed at the Russian public and particularly...

The Russian military claimed Sunday to have carried out deadly missile strikes on barracks used by Ukrainian troops in retaliation for the deaths of dozens of Russian soldiers in a rocket attack a week ago. Ukrainian officials denied there were any casualties. The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, killing 600 of them. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the strikes were retaliation for Ukraine’s attack in Makiivka, in which at least 89 Russian soldiers died. Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s forces in the east,...

U.S. Capitol police recently arrested Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was fatally shot two years ago by Capitol police officer Michael Byrd during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. On Jan. 6, 2023, the anniversary of Ashli’s death. Yet Byrd, the Capitol police officer who murdered Ashli-- a diminutive, unarmed veteran posing no danger to anyone-- was never charged, his actions never investigated. Despite the fact that he has a documented history of mishandling firearms. (For example, accidentally leaving a loaded handgun in a Capitol bathroom.)Witthoeft was part of a small group peacefully protesting Ashli’s...

As China battles an unprecedented COVID surge, nearly 90% of Henan — the third most populous province — has now been infected with the virus, a top health official said Monday. Kan Quancheng, the director of the health commission for central Henan province, said that as of Jan. 6, the infection rate was 89%. With Henan’s population being about 99.4 million, the data would suggest that 88.5 million residents have now been positive for COVID. Visits to fever clinics hit their peak on Dec. 19 — mere weeks after China began easing its brutal “zero-COVID” policies. After that surge late...

There is a change in the air. You can smell it. It's the smell of fear and the rank odor of hypocrisy. Yesterday the Washington Post, as they are wont, treated the country as though all its citizens were stupid. Immigration pivot shows Biden facing hard reality of border politicsNo. That's not even close. In fact, it's a lie that the Post is helping Biden sell. For two years this country has been gaslighted by the most galactically dishonest regime in history. For two years Joe Biden has said that there was no border crisis. For two years that maggot...

A federal judge upheld a West Virginia law requiring student athletes to compete with other members of their biological sex, dealing a blow to both the transgender movement and the Biden administration, which had supported the lawsuit challenging the statute. Southern District of West Virginia Judge Joseph Goodwin ruled Thursday that the Mountain State’s “Save Women’s Sports Act” (H.B. 3293), which requires athletic teams “sponsored by any public secondary school or a state institution of higher education” that are designated as female-only to deny entry to biological males, does not violate either the 14th Amendment or Title IX of the...

Bernard Kalb, a veteran correspondent for CBS, NBC and The New York Times who also made a brief and unhappy foray into government as a State Department spokesman, died on Sunday at his home in North Bethesda, Md. He was 100. His death was confirmed by his daughter Claudia Kalb, who said his health had declined after a fall on Jan. 2. In his many years on television, Mr. Kalb’s sonorous voice, thick eyebrows and command of detail became familiar to millions of viewers. He covered wars, revolutions and the diplomatic breakthroughs that presaged the end of the Cold War.

Kevin McCarthy reportedly agreed to spending caps that would limit future aid to Ukraine as part of the deal with ultraconservatives that enabled him to finally be elected as House speaker on Saturday.Mr McCarthy, a Republican, secured the position in the early hours, following a historic five-day 15-vote fight that brought Washington to a standstill.His Right-wing opponents from the chamber’s Freedom Caucus, dubbed the “Taliban 20”, wielded their opposition to US aid for Kiev as part of their justification for voting against him in the first 14 votes.Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of the most hardline aid sceptics, led...

Steve Kirsch @stkirsch Commotio cordis is IMPOSSIBLE for Damar Hamlin. I’m happy to bet anyone $1M on this. Any takers news media????