Free Republic

Americans are taking a been-there, done-that approach to the 2024 presidential election. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 58% of voters prefer somebody other than President Biden as their standard-bearer in two years, and 49% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the same about former President Donald Trump, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday. While 44% of Republicans support Trump being their nominee, only 31% of Democrats back a Biden run for re-election.

A former Arizona state trooper will spend five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to multiple sex-related charges stemming from his actions during traffic stops, according to Fox 10 Phoenix. Tremaine Jackson, who was a 13-year veteran of the Arizona Department of Public Safety at the time of his arrest in 2019, was initially charged with 61 counts of sex-related, kidnapping and fraud charges, according to the AZDPS website. Agreeing to a plea deal, Jackson pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment with sexual intent, bribery with sexual intent, attempted kidnapping with sexual intent, fraud with sexual intent and unlawful sexual...

Senators on Feb. 15 will receive a classified briefing on the Chinese balloon that was shot down by the U.S. military, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), which will also include information on how the U.S. stacks up against China militarily. The briefing for all 50 senators comes after some lawmakers in recent days called on the Biden administration for more details on the matter. Republicans spent the week criticizing Biden for not taking the balloon down sooner, allowing it to fly over much of the United States before it was shot down over South Carolina. But Schumer...

The resolution is called “Recognizing Israel as America’s Legitimate and Democratic Ally and Condemning Antisemitism,” and its cosponsors are a who’s-who of the pro-Israel Democrats, including leading Jewish lawmakers. Also on the sponsor list: Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has been one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress and who Republicans on Thursday kicked off the Foreign Affairs Committee over her history of anti-Israel and antisemitic comments. In a press release sent out just an hour ahead of a successful party-line vote to remove Omar from the committee, Omar’s name is sandwiched between the names of Reps. Brad Schneider and Josh...

Since Grover Cleveland was president, no one has accused the average politician of being principled or even consistent. Year after year, Republicans claim to care about fiscal prudence but, when in power, spend like Democrats. In their turn, Democrats insist that they want to engineer a transition to a green energy economy, but their actions contradict this goal. Of course, you would miss these contradictions if you looked only at the effort Democrats pour into distributing green energy subsidies. The infrastructure bill of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act adopted last year included enormous subsidies for green energy. Then Congress...

The Biden Border Rush continues, with hordes of illegal aliens being welcomed into the country. Where does it all end? We might consider looking at the sending nations for answers. If the Border Rush continues, how many people will decide to come to the U.S.A.? Nobody knows for sure, but a major international poll gives us a clue that it could be a lot of people.

The Milley boys at the Pentagon have come up with a new public relations "save" for Joe Biden and his pathetic indecisiveness about a China spy balloon brazenly traversing the continental United States until it was shot down over the Atlantic yesterday. According to the Pentagon's website, defense.gov: [cut] You know the press is going to be dining out on this for the next ten news cycles. There's just one problem, though -- the claim that Trump saw three Chinese balloons traverse through the U.S. on his watch and did nothing is ... deflating fast. First, we have an explicit...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday sidestepped a question on whether he wants President Biden to run for a second White House term in 2024, lauding the president’s accomplishments but saying he “can’t talk campaigns.” “Do you want him to run? Do you want him to run again?” host Jonathan Karl asked Buttigieg on ABC’s “This Week,” highlighting recent polling data that suggests Democrats may not want another four years with Biden.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving ahead with a plan to place new limits on credit card late fees that it says will save consumers money and prohibit companies from charging excessive penalties. But banking groups say the proposal would result in higher costs for consumers. The proposal comes less than a year after the bureau found that credit card companies in 2020 charged $12 billion in late fees, which have become a ballooning revenue source for lenders.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov will likely be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported on Feb. 5, citing government and military sources.According to the sources, the likely replacement for Reznikov is understood to be Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency HUR. In a soon-to-be-published interview with Ukrainska Pravda, Reznikov reportedly denied any knowledge of an imminent dismissal.“I have not had any conversations about my resignation from this position,” he reportedly said.A government source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Reznikov was likely to be replaced in the very near future.

'We're tired': 116-year-old Seattle business to close shop over encampment safety concerns by HANNAH EVERMAN and JEREMY HARRIS Friday, February 3rd 2023 SEATTLE HOMELESS CRISIS FORCES CLOSURE OF 116 YEAR-OLD BUSINESS Thea Sand: "We’ve just kind of had it with what’s happening in Seattle" SEATTLE (KOMO) — A business in Seattle's SODO neighborhood has survived everything from world wars to the Great Depression and even multiple pandemics, but says it can't continue to stay open anymore due to the homeless crisis downtown. Thea Sand, the fifth-generation owner of Emmanuel's Rug and Upholstery Cleaners SODO, said she is closing her business...

Americans’ positive views of the United States economy remains well below half, but have ticked up slightly over the past week, according to a new CBS poll. The new poll found that 33 percent of Americans think the condition of the economy is good, an increase from last week’s number of 28 percent. As the nation’s debt limit remains in limbo, more than half of Americans say that Congress should not raise the debt ceiling while 45 percent saying that it should. But when presented with the prospect of a default, 67 percent said it should raise the debt limit....

This documentary puts an amusing spin on US oligarchs' genocidal activities, from eugenics to perpetual war, to the deadliest vaccines in 100 years. Starring: Sucharit Bhakdi, Jay Bhattachary, Anthony Fauci, Sunetra Gupta, Annie Jacobson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pierre Kory, Martin Kulldorff, Kristin Massey, Peter McCullough Directed by John L. Potash

20 YEARS AGO — Just the other day, I was sitting in my living room when I heard a loud bang from the basement. Undoubtedly, it was one of my kids destroying yet another piece of our home — but I'll never know. That's because the noise made me turn my head, resulting in me hurting my back. Yes, a head turn can now hurt my back. When I was a kid, I'd ride my bike off a shed roof and hit the ground like a satellite returning to Earth's atmosphere. I'd then pop up, grab a popsicle and go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfOAJP2wB3s

Pope Francis accuses his critics of exploiting the death of his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI for their own interests. The current pontiff said this to journalists on the plane on Sunday on the return flight of his Africa trip. "I believe that Benedict's death has been instrumentalised," Francis said, speaking of people who were only pursuing their own agenda.

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures this morning. Gallagher told the FOX News audience that President Trump required universities to disclose their CCP donations. There were over $6.1 billion in donations discovered that were not previously disclosed due to Trump policies. According to Rep. Gallagher, who will head the House Select Committee on China, President Trump started enforcing Section 117 of the Higher Education Act which requires disclosure of gifts in excess of $250,000. Joe Biden dropped it. Why was that? The Biden Center at UPenn received over $50 million from China after they set...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s defence minister expressed confidence Sunday that Western allies would agree to the country’s latest weapons request – warplanes to fight off Russian forces that invaded nearly a year ago. Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told a news conference in Kyiv that Ukraine has already received everything from its “wish list to Santa,” except planes. “There will be planes, too,” Reznikov predicted. “The question is just what kind exactly…. Consider that this mission is already completed.”

A lady walks into Tiffany's. She looks around, spots a beautiful Diamond bracelet and walks over to inspect it. As she bends over to more closely inspect it, she farts. Very embarrassed she looks around nervously to see if anyone noticed her little whoops and prays that a salesperson was not anywhere near. As she turns around her worst nightmare materializes in the form of a salesman standing right behind her. Good looking as well as "cool as a cucumber" he displays all of what you would expect of a professional in a store like Tiffany's. He politely greets the...

Bias and stereotypes lead to college-educated Black women facing greater challenges in the dating market. Black women are among the highest educated female demographic in America. Students and experts told Insider that predominantly white college campuses don't create a fair playing field for Black women when dating. A viral TikTok of white, female college graduates showcasing their engagement rings while waiting to receive their degrees sparked a conversation online about the pressure on young women at southern colleges and universities to get engaged before graduation. The phenomenon has many names, but is perhaps most commonly trademarked as "ring by spring"...