Free Republic

Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Vice President Kamala Harris will be the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee if President Joe Biden does not run. Brazile said, “I’m so glad you brought up Kamala Harris because she is probably one of the most undefined human beings. She is incredible. She is standing in her own power. She has been, at every step, helpful to this president and getting his agenda through the United States Congress.” She continued, “So while her poll numbers may not reflect her true popularity, I can guarantee you Kamala Harris will not...

Once a year — every year since 1790 — the president of the United States has delivered a message on the state of the union. From 1801 to 1913, though, that message was delivered in writing. But since then, the president has almost exclusively traveled to the U.S. Capitol to deliver the message in person. It’s a pointless — and partisan — exercise. The president claims credit for everything good going on in the country, blames the opposing party for all the woes, and then delivers a laundry of all the things he wants to do in the future (most...

With China’s spy balloon crossing the American heartland unmolested and GOP leaders simultaneously starting probes of his family’s corruption, Joe Biden is entering a new phase of his presidency. The worst case scenario is that all his chickens are coming home to roost. The spy balloon’s appearance and that of two additional objects shot down by the military oddly highlight the importance of the House probes. The possibility that Biden has been compromised by profiting from son Hunter’s lucrative foreign entanglements, especially with China, is drawing extra attention to how the president reacts to the Communist regime’s aggressive surveillance. So...

Was I the only journalist in America who thought President Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday was hard to watch? At least until he departed from his script and began sparring with the nation’s rudest Republicans?Sometimes when Biden starts to speak, I involuntarily hold my breath, waiting for him to stumble over his words, or slur them or otherwise mangle his text in a way that will show up in clips on Fox News or MAGA Twitter. See, he’s incompetent! Worrying about this detracts from the pleasure of having a solid Democratic president after four years of Trumpian chaos...

Tuesday nights in Indianapolis, I have been teaching an introduction to the classic literature of Judaism. This last Tuesday, the topic was the Talmud, an amazing book, unique in world literature, but a book which has been closed, sometimes partially, sometimes nearly entirely, to my students — and how much the more to those who have never come to such a class. This notwithstanding that the large majority of students in this course are Jewish. But like myself, they were educated in the literature of the general culture, which has relegated religious literature to a place off to the side,...

A survivor of the University of Idaho killings allegedly thought sounds from her four roommates being brutally slain was just noisy partying — and may have passed out after running into accused killer Bryan Kohberger. Dylan Mortensen, 21, allegedly called out to her friends to quiet down after she mistook the commotion for partying, a source close to the case told NewsNation. Mortensen allegedly opened her bedroom door around 4 a.m. and yelled: “Calm down, you’re being loud!” and “I’m trying to sleep!”

Israel's president called for greater dialogue between the Right and Left, warning Sunday that the country is descending into a major social crisis. In a televised address Sunday evening, President Isaac Herzog reiterated his call on the Netanyahu government and the Opposition to reach a compromise on the proposed judicial reform plan...

Pope Francis said Sunday he is “saddened” and worried that Roman Catholic Bishop Roland Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison for speaking out against the Nicaraguan government. Álvarez, 56, learned his fate from a Managua appeals court Friday after refusing to board a plane to the US with 222 other opponents of President Daniel Ortega. The bishop of Matagalpa was also stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship.

Discover the massive terracotta army, buried for centuries and revealing the grandeur of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Uncover the history, mythology, and mystery of the tomb complex and its impact on our understanding of ancient ChinaDiscovering the Secrets of Emperor Qin's Mausoleum | Megaprojects | 918K subscribers | 161,749 views | Febuary 6, 2023

One of the most important policy battles of 2023 is already happening quietly and outside of the media spotlight. Indeed, many Americans are completely unaware that it is underway. It is over the Left’s ESG (environmental, social and governance)-driven investments and their corrosive effect on the country. Over the past two years, the Left has launched a determined campaign to advance their climate, gun-control, and abortion objectives not through legislation, but through the allocation and denial of capital. The proponents of ESG-driven investments are using woke investment firms like BlackRock to phase out fossil fuels, weaken agriculture, hobble the firearms...

Winter can take some of the blame, but the cold isn't really the cause of the illnesses around us. The real culprit for catching viruses is a lack of ventilation. Let's discuss one significant obstacle to health every winter - the heating. It's true that it's important to keep the body warm so that it remains healthy and stimulates blood circulation, but don't exaggerate. Any doctor will confirm that there's no need to overheat rooms. On the contrary, ventilating the spaces can reduce the chance of infection.

12 February 20236th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, Barcelona Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: A(I).First readingEcclesiasticus 15:16-21 ©God predestined wisdom to be for our glory before the ages beganIf you wish, you can keep the commandments, to behave faithfully is within your power.He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer.Man has life and death before him; whichever a man likes better will be given him.For vast is the wisdom of the Lord; he is almighty and all-seeing.His eyes are on those who fear him,...

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday accused Republicans of playing “brinkmanship” and holding the U.S. economy “hostage” on the debt ceiling. “Four times Democrats, even when Trump was in power, even two times when Trump and the Republicans had the House and Senate, we could have blocked it,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week,” talking about suspending the debt ceiling. “We did not play brinkmanship.”

Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said on Sunday that a potential 2024 presidential run would be “an opportunity to change things” and put “a little better attitude” in Washington, D.C. Sununu told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan that the nation’s capital “gives me the chills sometimes.” “Well, you might need to get over that if you’re gonna run for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., as apparently you are considering doing,” Brennan said. “Well look, a lot of opportunity to change things, right?” Sununu replied.

The Federal Aviation Administration has declared a "national defense airspace" over part of Lake Michigan, the organization announced Sunday. The FAA has not clarified why it has banned civilian air traffic from the area. The FAA last established a national defense airspace over Montana this weekend in reaction to an unidentified flying object. This is a developing story. Check back soon for updates.

“When Bonnie Raitt won the award for Song of the Year at the 2023 Grammys on Sunday night for her track Just Like That,” The Daily Mail reports this week, “some were shocked that the accolade went to the 73-year-old folk singer - over huge artists like Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Harry Styles, Beyonce and Adele, who were also nominated for the category.” Much less shocking, given Raitt’s social and political milieu, is this rock and roller’s propaganda ministrations for the only regime in the modern history of the Western Hemisphere to criminalize rock & roll and herd its practitioners and...

Two climate activists who blocked traffic in the German city of Stuttgart earlier this year missed their court date because they flew to Bali and Indonesia, for a round trip of 23,000 kilometers producing 7.9 tons of CO2 emissions. In September 2022, Yannick S. and his girlfriend Luisa S., both members of the Last Generation activist group, blocked commuter traffic in Stuttgart. The two were cited by police, but when their court date arrived, it was revealed that neither could attend because they were on the other side of the planet on vacation. The two climate activists are now being...

In the unrelenting quest to extract more taxes from the working portion of the population, the IRS is focusing on unreported tips income. Commissioner Douglas O'Donnell pointed out that "legislation enacted last year gave us the funding for an additional 87,000 armed IRS agents. Since unreported tip income has been a thorn in the IRS' side for generations we now have the manpower to track down and punish these tax chiselers." O'Donnell denied that this initiative contradicts the President's ambition to extract more taxes from the wealthiest Americans, saying "trying to go after the wealthiest taxpayers is fraught with risk....

On this date in 2004, the former deputy governor of China’s Anhui province was executed for official corruption. It was just weeks after Wang’s conviction for grifting some 100 million yuan in real estate transactions dating back to the mid 1990’s. We suppose Wang did his appeals no favors by steadfastly denying guilt — although he might have reckoned that the national “determination … to fight corruption” thwarted any such plan....

- United States closes airspace over parts of Lake Michigan, NOTAM states "national defense airspace