Free Republic

However, a poll by the research group Chronicles indicates that, ahead of the 2024 election, Putin might have an uphill battle in maintaining the population's support for the war as they feel its economic consequences. The survey found that pro-war Russians are a minority and were outnumbered by those who favor peace. It found that the core of support for the war was only 12 percent, compared with 22 percent in February, one year after the start of what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation.".. More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they experienced anxiety or depression, an...

Here in Kentucky, we have reached a new low in white Christian nationalist politics. Barely a week after Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear decisively won re-election in our deep-red state, parents Brad and Stacy Briscoe marched their teenage daughter to the front of an Anderson County Schools Board meeting — and effectively outed her. Hundreds packed that Nov. 13 board meeting, held less than 15 miles from the state Capitol. They came, they said in speech after speech, to support the Briscoes, who had filed a complaint stating that their daughter was groomed by a school counselor, and to demand the...

Joe Biden is facing a significant internal revolt against his administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas war, insiders have said - reflected in nationwide unease at the conflict, and his dismal polls. The president has been determined to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel following the Hamas terror attack of October 7, which killed 1,200 people. But he warned Israel's leaders in private and in public not to repeat America's mistakes post 9/11, and be blinded by rage and a desire for revenge. With 15,000 Gazans killed in seven weeks of bombardment, many inside the Biden administration feel that the White House should...

The COP 28 climate confab opened today in Dubai. Some 70,000 true believers in the energy transition are said to be gathering. And not one of them appears to be either willing or able to do the simple arithmetic that shows that this can’t possibly work. So far, no country that has made a commitment to “net zero” has officially backed off. (Argentina may soon become the first.). Things proceed as if all that is needed is to build sufficient wind and solar generation facilities, until eventually you have enough of them to meet demand. But that’s not how this...

While leaders around the world remember Henry Kissinger fondly and praise him as a brilliant, hard-driving US statesman, the silence from Latin America is deafening. "A man has died whose historical brilliance never managed to conceal his moral wretchedness," Chile's ambassador to the United States, Juan Gabriel Valdes, wrote on X, the former Twitter. The envoy posted his acerbic remark after the death Wednesday of Kissinger, who greenlighted the 1973 coup that brought down Chile's elected socialist president and installed the rightwing dictatorship of general Augusto Pinochet. Chilean President Gabriel Boric quietly reposted that X message, and the foreign minister...

Recent polls have shown a significant increase in the percentage of gun owners, the amount of gun ownership, and acceptance of the utility of firearms for self-defense. Some of the increase comes from record and sustained high levels of firearms sales. Some of the higher numbers are from gun owners who are “coming out of the closet.” They are examples of a changed attitude and increased acceptance of admitting to firearms ownership in public.In the United States, gun ownership is the most widespread of any country on the earth.Guns owned in the United States are seldom registered. The few states...

Russia lost a dozen elite marines when they cooked food on an open fire and triggered an explosion from nearby live ammunition. Eight more were wounded in the incident that Vladimir Putin's regime has sought to cover-up. Reports say a RPG-7 grenade launcher shell caught fire and exploded at Kuzminsky military training ground in Rostov region, bordering Ukraine. Eight of the marines from 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade, based in Vladivostok, were killed on the spot. Four more died in hospital, said the News 166 outlet in Rostov, which said the humiliating tragedy had been confirmed by three independent sources....

Lab was reportedly on congressman's radar months before it was 'discovered' by a local code enforcement officerO’Keefe Media Group founder James O’Keefe recently confronted a congressional staffer for a California Democrat congressman and revealed he’d been caught on hidden camera making shocking remarks about a controversial Chinese biolab in The Golden State.O’Keefe Media Group founder James O’Keefe recently confronted a congressional staffer for a California Democrat congressman and revealed he’d been caught on hidden camera making shocking remarks about a controversial Chinese biolab in The Golden State.The lab, owned by a shady Chinese company, housed 900 genetically engineered mice designed...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemActs 19The Riot in Ephesus 23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. 24 A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. 25 He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. 26 And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia....

Actual accusations, which can be refuted, are much less useful than slippery mush words that leave your target without a defense. If you want to become a tyrant and transform your fellow citizens into slaves, all you really need are a few good mush words. “Mush words” are words with vague definitions. They’re slippery, hard to pin down, elusive, ultimately unknowable—and, for budding tyrants, extremely useful. The word “racist,” for example, is a superb mush word. “Sexist” is outstanding as well, as is “(whatever)-aphobe.” Better yet, accuse someone of being full of “hate.” But how do they work? Why are...

New Yorkers can only dream about the thrill of the open road as a new survey reveals they spend more of their lives stuck in traffic than drivers anywhere in the US. **SNIP** New York has increased its unwanted lead since last year and the findings were released just hours after New York's Traffic Mobility Review Board released its congestion pricing plan that could see drivers slapped with extra fees of up to $36. Drivers of cars, SUVs and pickup trucks would be charged $15 a day to enter Manhattan below 60th Street. Small trucks would be charged $24, commercial...

Thirty-one years ago, an event occurred that was among the primary catalysts in the elevation into the political mainstream of the Marxist-inspired American Left. The presidential election of 1992 marked the turning point when the American people set in motion the dynamic that has eventuated in the radical Left’s dominance of government. These Marxist ideologues, with their totalitarian mindset and statist convictions, have skillfully exploited an overwhelmingly self-centered and ill-educated populace, while being greatly aided by foolishly sanctimonious segments of the conservative electorate and the Republican Party. These factors, in combination with a political system that can only function with...

One of the most accurate aspects about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza is the use of the word Nazi to describe the terrorist enemy. No other label or historical parallel could capture the chilling ferocious madness – but not scope – of Palestinian butchery of Israelis. The Nazi vilification epithet has now become conventional Israeli discourse in public and media circles with the vivid revelation – in words and photos – of Palestinian savagery and barbarism by Hamas on October 7. Hamas terrorists, without an ounce of inhibition or remorse, shot youth in cold blood at the music festival...

Trump on Wednesday attacked Dawn Engoron, the wife of the judge, Arthur Engoron, and the judge’s clerk, on his social media platform Truth Social. He called Dawn Engoron a “Trump hating wife” and said that she and Arthur Engoron’s law clerk had “taken over control of the New York State Witch Hunt Trial aimed at me, my family, and the Republican Party”. On Thursday, the gag order against him, which had been paused two weeks ago, was reinstated, but it did not stop Trump lashing out further. The order only specifies comments about members of Judge Engoron’s staff, not his...

“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” — George SantayanaThere are many who have been advocating for and praising the so-called “ceasefire” agreement between Israel and the Islamic terrorist organization Hamas. I know that the families of those held hostage want to have their loved ones released back to them, especially the elderly and little children. How utterly savage and barbaric, but that is to be expected from a terrorist organization whose existence is dedicated to the extermination and eradication of the Jewish people and their homeland . . . a continuation of Adolf Hitler’s final...

Misogyny and cultural “norms” subjugating women are widespread in much of the Islamic world. These include female genital mutilation, forced marriages, persecuting women for not dressing according to strict Islamic standards, “honor killings,” and much more.It’s no surprise then, but shocking and horrific nonetheless, that one “weapon” in Hamas’ inhuman massacre of over 1200 people in Israel on October 7, brutalizing thousands, and kidnapping more than 240, including young children and elderly women held hostage in Gaza, was the raping of Israeli women in the process. Underscoring that these are not individual criminal acts but part of something widespread and...

I was the co-president of TorchPAC, a pro-Israel group at NYU, from 1999 to 2002.While we held rallies, protests, marches, writing letter campaigns, petitions, and articles, I could also see the major efforts and inroads that the pro-Palestinian proponents were making in the common culture. This worried me at that time, but there didn’t seem to be anything I could do about it.For the last 20 years I’ve been living a private life and working for my family business. But our old adversaries and enemies at NYU from Arab Students United, Students for Justice in Palestine and similar anti-Israel groups...

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In a drastic turn, US boat sales, once thriving during the pandemic, are expected to plummet to a decade low, driven by the impact of soaring interest rates. The average per-person collection amount has surged from about $1,200 last year to over $1,600 in Q3 this year, signaling intensified financial strain. As 92% of Americans adapt their spending habits and gross domestic product and income diverge to levels not seen since 2007, urgent challenges emerge in the economic landscape. Compounding the pressure, credit card debt has soared past the $1 trillion mark, reaching unprecedented levels. The Federal Reserve’s assertive interest...

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