Free Republic

Renowned political commentator and comedian/actor Ben Stein recently got into some hot water over his comments about Aunt Jemima. Stein released a video on social media speaking about eating breakfast for dinner while holding a bottle of pancake syrup. He expressed his grievance with the syrup brand removing the actual image of Aunt Jemima in favor of a white person or no person at all. Stein also said that she was a “large” African-American woman. The 30-second clip stirred a lot of controversies online, with many people referring to him as racist and insensitive. Other people say they agree with...

Ruslan kubay was surprised to receive a draft notice in late January. Registered as seriously disabled since childhood—Mr Kubay is missing both hands—he falls under a list of automatic exemptions from service. Even more surprising, however, was the reaction of officials at the local registration office in Drohobych, near Lviv. Far from admitting their error, they doubled down and declared him fit for service. Only a social-media post and subsequent national scandal reversed the decision. “I was disgusted by how easily our blind people can start seeing,” he wrote on Facebook. Mr Kubay’s case was an extreme, but far from...

The Tennessee legislature just took a major step forward in the culture war, fighting to protect the eyes and innocence of children by banning drag shows from occurring in front of kids. That bill, SB 0003, has now been passed by both the Tennessee House and Senate and is headed to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee. The bill’s summary provides that (emphasis ours):This bill creates an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an...

Credit card companies have a plan in place that will, to some degree, allow the tracking of gun and ammo sales. This was a move politicians pushed for, despite absolutely no one being able to actually show us how it will reduce mass shootings, violent crime, or anything else. This is simply the latest step the financial industry has taken to hurt the firearm industry. A lot of people are anything but keen on seeing something like this in place. In Florida, a bill will seek to implement a $10,000 fine on each instance of a company tracking the sales...

“Any war at the turning point of technological epochs ( and we are just in a state of such transition) is burdened by a lack of understanding of the principles of operation of new weapons and tactics of their use, as well as the overall strategy of the entire complex of military and political actions.” There’s been an increasing realization and acknowledgement from all sides, that the current conflict has shaken the foundations of a lot of doctrinal military theory, and the very understandings of how strategy and tactics are employed in a modern ISR-dense (C4ISR) and observation/integration/network-centric-dominated battlefield. This...

Hillary Clinton calls on aides of Putin to stop him:"They need to stop him. Whether or not this has turned into some physical or mental problems he either had or some way came down with we don't know but his behavior is dangerous."

Talk about a twofer: doubling down on disaster and getting what entrenched liberals outvoted the saner citizens for. When New York State’s Governor Kathy Hochul presented her budget on 1 Feb of this year, most of the attention was immediately captured by the pie-in-the-sky Green/renewable mandates it contained (previewed when I posted on her State of the State.) The proposals are so out of touch with the reality of NY state’s weather extremes, especially living anywhere outside the five boroughs of the city, that they’d be laughable if she and the Green lobby loons working them up weren’t deadly serious...

All day and sometimes into the night, buses and vans pull up to three state-funded medical screening centers near California’s southern border with Mexico. Federal immigration officers unload migrants predominantly from Brazil, Cuba, Colombia, and Peru, most of whom await asylum hearings in the United States. This story also ran on The San Diego Union-Tribune. It can be republished for free. We want to hear about your experiences and, with your permission, may incorporate your story into our coverage. Please tell us what it has been like for you as you have sought and received care, including the good and...

The City of Frankfurt, Germany announced that a scheduled Roger Waters concert would be canceled. In their decision, the city council referred to the Pink Floyd rocker as "one of the world's most well-known antisemites." Waters was supposed to perform at the Festhalle concert hall in Frankfurt on May 28. The venue is not a privately held entity, as the city has a 60% share in the ownership. As such, the city council had the power to cancel Waters gig. The cancellation announcement cited Waters' boycott of Israel, his comparisons of Israel to apartheid South Africa, his declaration of his...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) -- Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman remains in the hospital to receive treatment for clinical depression but is staying up to date on Senate business, his communications director Joe Calvello said in a statement Monday. Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Feb. 15 to receive treatment. "John is doing well, working with the wonderful doctors, and remains on a path to recovery," Calvello said. "He is visiting with staff and family daily, and his staff are keeping him updated on Senate business and news. Our team is moving full speed ahead and working...

The White House on Monday downplayed and would not confirm a report that the Department of Energy determined a lab leak was the most likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying there is no government consensus yet about what caused the outbreak. “The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this,” John Kirby, a White House national security spokesperson, said at a press briefing. “There’s not been a definitive conclusion, so it’s difficult for me to say, nor should I feel like I should have to defend press reporting about a possible preliminary indication here,”...

Lawyer and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin compared high-profile murder trial defendant Alex Murdaugh to Kyle Rittenhouse on Friday.

OH Gov. Mike DeWine ordered flags to half-staff at the statehouse Kris Jordan, a Republican who represented Delaware County in the Ohio House of Representatives, has died, the Ohio House speaker announced Saturday. He was 46. Jordan, of Ostrander, was serving his third term as the state's 60th District representative after having earlier served two terms in the Ohio Senate. "Kris was a loving father, a man of faith, a leader, and a person I considered a very dear friend," Speaker Jason Stephens said. "My heart goes out to Kris’s family, especially his three children and loving parents." Gov. Mike...

Attorneys for a man shot and injured by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020 are asking a federal judge to give them more time to serve Rittenhouse with a civil lawsuit, alleging that he is purposefully trying to evade them. Attorneys for Gaige Grosskreutz filed the request on Wednesday, the deadline that U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman had given them to serve the lawsuit on Rittenhouse and the other defendants. Grosskreutz added Rittenhouse as a defendant last week in the lawsuit that also targets the city of Kenosha and local officials. The video in this story is from a...

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was put on blast by critics for blaming her dwindling re-election prospects on race and gender instead of the city's crime crisis. "I'm a Black woman and, let's not forget, some folks frankly don't support us in leadership roles," Lightfoot told The New Yorker recently. "I think Lori's time is up," local radio host Ray Stevens responded Monday on "Fox & Friends First." "Personally, I don't [think she can pull off this race], but I've been wrong before as the polls have in the past," he said earlier in the segment. Stevens told co-anchors Todd Piro...

During a portion of an interview with CNN on Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that while inflation remains “too high,” it has been generally declining over the past year, and she would characterize the process of bringing down inflation while maintaining the “very strong labor market” that currently exists as “so far, so good.” CNN International Correspondent Melissa Bell asked, “We’ve seen the fight against inflation take a hit, PCE [Personal Consumption Expenditures price index] hitting 5.4%. Do you believe at this stage that the Fed is behind the curve or that a soft landing is still the most...

If President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign were an airliner, he’d have finished fueling, received clearance from air traffic control — and, to the frustration of his passengers, still be sitting on the ground. For months, the White House has been teasing an announcement that Biden will run again in 2024. Also for months, the White House has refused to confirm that he will. The latest strong hint that Biden is ready for lift off — yet as usual leaving wiggle room — came from First Lady Jill Biden in a series of interviews with US media during a visit...

Engaged in a continuing Great Purge against top officials, the authoritarian Ukrainian president finds himself with fewer and fewer allies where it matters. Volodomyr Zelensky has a lot of powerful backers around the world, and from afar, the Ukrainian president seems politically invincible. He’s got the Uniparty in Washington, D.C. on his side, coupled with the international globalists in the robust World Economic Forum-attached network, along with the public-private asset management behemoth financiers in BlackRock and co, and another heavy line of credit through the IMF-World Bank group. Domestically, it’s an entirely different story. The Ukrainian people are suffering greatly...

Former President Donald Trump is maintaining a double-digit lead in recent 2024 Republican primary surveys, including the latest Fox News poll.While Fox News polls have not looked kindly on Trump in the past, the latest survey shows the 2024 contender leading his closest hypothetical challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 15 percent, garnering 43 percent to the governor’s 28 percent. No other candidate saw double-digit support, as Nikki Haley — who formally jumped into the presidential ring this month — and former Vice President Mike Pence garnered seven percent support each.Everyone else listed received two percent support or less.Trump is...

Former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! star and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick has shared his heartbreak after his husband Petter Belsvik was found dead at homeBrian Paddick has revealed that his husband, Petter has died "peacefully alone" at their home in Oslo, Norway. The Liberal Democrat peer, 64, took to social media to share his devastating news with his 14,300 followers on Monday morning and said Brian's cause of death is not "immediately apparent". In a tweet, the former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant said: "My beautiful, loving husband, Petter Belsvik, has died...