Free Republic

As students, most of us learned that the power of the purse belongs to the legislative branch. Our founders wisely believed that those in charge of spending taxpayer money should be closest to the people- that they should represent them. If you are politically progressive or live in one of the top five most populated cities in Wyoming, you will find that you are well represented by the Wyoming House Appropriations Committee. If you are traditionally conservative or live in a place other than Cheyenne, Casper or Laramie, you may find that those holding the purse strings wouldn’t agree with...

... As Chicago prepares for the 2024 Democratic convention, Mayor Brandon Johnson will face questions about how much he can and should spend to get the cash-strapped city ready, and whether spending tens of millions of dollars makes sense. Johnson is fresh off his inauguration and his administration has so far declined to comment on any plans. Much has been written about the squishiness of pre-convention economic benefits, along with the costs cities end up eating themselves getting ready for the pomp and circumstance. While boosters have predicted economic returns of $150 million or more to cities that hosted them...

(Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine gave conflicting accounts of the situation in Bakhmut on Sunday, with Kyiv saying it still controlled a small part of the besieged eastern city while Moscow congratulated the Wagner private army and Russian troops for "liberating" it.* Ukrainian forces have partly encircled Bakhmut along the flanks and still control a part of the city, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said.* Senior Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv's forces controlled a small part of the devastated city, were advancing in the suburbs and weregetting closer to a "tactical encirclement" of the city.* Russia claimed on Saturday...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

A transgender cyclist won the female category at a gravel race but stood alone on the winners' podium after the event. The second- and third-place winners refused to appear at the medal ceremony after Lesley Mumford won her age group in the 100-mile Desert Gravel Co2Ut. Mumford was born a male and transitioned to female in 2017. Mumford posted a picture on Instagram of her standing at the podium alone but smiling and holding the first-place medal "I have no idea why so many people bailed before the podiums, but they did," Mumford wrote after finishing ahead of 43 female...

Three people were fatally shot and two others injured when gunfire broke out at a Kansas City nightclub early Sunday. Police in the Missouri city arrived at the Klymax Lounge at 1:25 a.m., just before closing time, to find the five victims in and outside the club. Two were reported dead at the scene, with a third victim dying at the hospital. One of the survivors was listed in critical condition, while the other was stable, police said. It remains unclear if police have a suspect or a motive for the deadly shooting.

CLAIM: During Friday’s airing of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) claimed an AR-15 rifle is an “automatic weapon.” VERDICT: False. AR-15s are semiautomatic firearms. Grisham made her comments during a discussion of the May 16, 2023, Farmington, New Mexico, shooting that left three people dead. CNN identified the Farmington gunman as an 18-year-old male and noted his family had worried about his mental health. He used three different guns in the attack and was ultimately killed by police.

President Biden would be blameless in the event that the U.S. defaults on its debt in the coming days, the president declared Sunday. Biden made the claim during a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where he had traveled for meetings with G-7 nations. Republicans in Congress forced Biden to the negotiating table after months of the White House insisting there would be no debate over the issue. Biden now argues that certain "MAGA Republicans" are seeking to cause a default in an effort to crash the economy ahead of Biden's re-election effort. "I've done my part," Biden said regarding negotiations,...

President Joe Biden claimed on Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that American-made F-16 fighter jets will not be used to attack Russian territory. At the tail end of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, President Biden said that President Zelensky provided him with a “flat assurance” that Western-supplied F-16 fighter planes will not be used to attack Russia itself, but rather “wherever Russian troops are within Ukraine and the area,” the Reuters news agency reported.

Armchair Warlord @ArmchairW The Battle of Bakhmut is over. It was one of the longest battles of the 21st century to date, and certainly the bloodiest. Russia won. In doing so it destroyed much of the Ukrainian Army's combat power while buying time to generate forces for future offensives. How much of the Ukrainian Army's combat power? The Grey Zone Telegram channel compiled a partial list of Ukrainian units reported in Bakhmut at some point during the nine-month battle. This is something like a third of the AFU's order of battle. Losses were obviously extreme. Russian casualties were modest in...

John Poulos, the CEO and founder of Dominion Voting Systems, has mysteriously predicted the company’s collapse as the “damage Dominion has endured [following the 2020 presidential election] is just too severe,” despite their Fox News payday. Poulos believes that regardless of the recent Fox News defamation victory, which saw the news outlet pay Dominion $787.5 million, the public outcry against the company will result in contractors opting to go elsewhere for their voting systems in the future. He believes: “Whenever the next time a customer chooses to buy a new system—because every eight years or so, you replace your voting...

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Saturday said default would confirm Chinese President Xi Jinping’s assessment of a broken U.S. political system, as the White House and Congress negotiate over the debt ceiling amid the possibility of default. “The single worst thing we could do is default. It would confirm Xi Jinping’s assessment that we have a flawed and broken political system, that we can’t solve our most basic challenges, and it would weaken us in the eyes of the rest of the world,” Coons said on MSNBC’s “Velshi.”

VIDEOThere was a video of ranting Democrat Moonbat (and unfortunately Nebraska state senator) Machaela Cavanaugh going going full loon that was viewed by many. However, what most viewers missed was the reaction to that Moonbat by a NORMAL Nebraskan sitting in the background. In this video we take a close look at the reactions of that normal Nebraskan to the Democrat Moonbat.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Russian forces do not occupy Bakhmut, despite Moscow’s assertions that the city had been taken. “Bakhmut is not occupied by the Russian Federation as of today,” Zelensky said in response to a reporter’s question at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Japan.

Russia has for months made the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut the central target of its invasion. It first made gains. But it has more recently lost some of those gains to a Ukraine counteroffensive.In the midst of these back-and-forth battles, reports circulated that Russian fighters were poorly equipped. Ukrainian Col. Andriy Biletsky, however, now says those claims are "more TikTok propaganda than reality.""The enemy is ready," Biletsky, the commander of Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade told The New York Times. "They are well personally equipped, armed, they have means of communication, good armored vehicles and a very good system...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Joe Biden can not invoke the 14th Amendment to address the debt ceiling under the current circumstances. Anchor Chuck Todd said, “Does the 14th Amendment fall under the category of extraordinary measures?”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Russian troops weren’t occupying Bakhmut even though they may have “razed it” to the ground and it is no longer in full possession of Kyiv’s forces. That assertion made in Hiroshima, Japan, where Zelensky is meeting members of the G7 at their annual conference directly contradicts Moscow’s claims the eastern Ukrainian city has fallen. On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated mercenaries from the Wagner organisation and regular units for the operation to “liberate” the town.

I gave an interview about the Supreme Court justice that ended up on the cutting room floor. Here’s what the network didn’t air. A popular tactic of American politics, especially on the left, is to attack the character of those with whom you don’t agree. This was evident with the recent show “Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power and the Supreme Court,” which PBS aired on May 9. A PBS producer emailed me last January about a planned documentary on the life and legacy of Justice Thomas, who used to work for me. The producer wrote that she wanted “to...

President Joe Biden lied Sunday when he said he was responsible for establishing the Quad alliance: a diplomatic association that links the United States, Australia, India, and Japan in common political cause across the Indo-Pacific and South China Sea. He told the lie at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan. Biden said: “I doubt many people…would’ve said that two years after being elected, I’d be able to convince India, Australia, Japan, and the United States to form an organization called the Quad.”

Standing on the stony ground in the bustling Fifa Park car lot, Rokeeb Yaya is haggling over the price of a dark red car. It is one of a couple hundred vehicles, parked in long lines stretching out across the vast lot – some shiny and new-looking, others dented and dusty. The car Yaya has his eye on, a 2008 US-built Ford Escape, is on sale for around $4,000. It’s relatively affordable – US cars are cheaper than most other brands in the lot – and he wants to upgrade from his motorbike to a car. He is not interested...