Free Republic

Shalom from Israel! Another week has gone by under wartime, and, as seems to regularly be the case, there have been some highlights and there have been some sorrows. Through it all, the people of Israel remain as dedicated as ever to defeat the enemies who are surrounding us. Unfortunately, it appears that the resolve of our allies is waning. As you’ll see below, it may not be long until we are on our own while new enemies step up against us. Rather than bombs and bullets, their weapons will be politics and pressure, sanctions and seizures, judgments and isolation....

Did you see that we just bombed the Houthis? Each new day in 2024 seems to bring some sort of a new escalation, and for now most Americans can ignore all of the fighting because it is all happening on the other side of the globe. But how are they going to feel when the U.S. is actively engaged in multiple wars simultaneously and those wars are directly affecting daily life inside the United States? The time to speak out against the foolish policies of our leaders is before the entire world is engulfed in flames. Once thousands of missiles...

Ayoung NBA guard who will earn nearly $2 million this season has been accused of shoplifting basic personal items from Target on multiple occasions. Ryan Rollins has had a rough week. On Monday, the Washington Wizards elected to waive him, a move that Sports Illustrated Wizards beat writer Gage Sheets initially described as "puzzling" since the team had just acquired Rollins from the Golden State Warriors last July, and at just 21 years old, he seemed to offer them a lot of value for his $1.7 million guaranteed salary. By Wednesday, Sheets was likely no longer confused by the Wizards'...

A Chicago woman has been left brain dead after she was viciously beaten by an eight-time felon, police said. The woman, 61, who has not been identified, was riding the CTA Red Line on January 4 when she was targeted by two men - one of whom was allegedly convicted criminal Mijawon Johnson, 36. As they attempted to steal her purse, Johnson pinned the woman to a seat and repeatedly punched and stomped her head and stomach, and jumped on her 'with all of his weight', prosecutors said. Johnson was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the...

A handful of House Democrats say they’d step in to help Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) keep his gavel in the face of a potential conservative revolt — but it wouldn’t come free. Democrats willing to consider the matter said Johnson would first have to forge an agreement with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) ensuring Democrats had a greater voice in the legislative process. In that case, they’d be willing to provide the votes to keep the Speaker in power. “Just like I told McCarthy: Talk to Hakeem, and there are some of us that can support you,” said Rep....

Nobody does political cynicism like the Italians. As a country it hasn't been crucial since the fifth century AD, but it knows more about how politics works – and more importantly how it doesn't work – than any other nation on the planet. After refining Greek democracy into a workable system for a growing empire, Rome set about discovering all the ways government could corrupt itself, then descended into over a millennia of decline and division. The moment – brief, hopeful and doomed – when Italy struggled to reemerge as a national entity again is the setting for this week's...

The US Embassy in Kiev has confirmed the death of US citizen and YouTuber Gonzalo Lira, aka “Coach Red Pill” in Ukrainian custody to The Gateway Pundit. US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink owes her career in Ukraine to Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who Lira blamed for his arrest in May 2023, saying Nuland “hates my guts.”We wrote to the US Embassy in Kiev on Jan. 12 to inquire about what information they have on what happened to Gonzalo Lira and what action the embassy took to protect him.Today, Jan 13, the US Embassy in Kiev wrote...

This interview contains a lot of information. Jim Rickards discusses how he sees a clear path to a Republican victory despite the possibility of a Trump conviction. One important point Rickards makes. Trump was excellent in foreign policy. The Abraham Accords, Peace in the Middle East etc. But domestically, Trump screwed up. He had no idea how the appointment process worked and he put in place a lot of disloyal people who turned on him. However, Trump is now working with conservative think tanks and Rickards believes that if elected, Trump will follow their recommendations and appoint people absolutely loyal...

Forget the fondue. Caviar, magic mushrooms, gold-leaf desserts, A-list selfies, $2,500-per-night hookers and secret dinners are likely to be on the menu as scores of private jets touch down in Switzerland as soon as Sunday to bring the world’s elite to the small Alpine resort town of Davos for what’s officially known as The World Economic Forum 2024.

Activist billionaire Bill Ackman says President Biden is too old to run for re-election and should drop out of the race for the White House. Ackman told CNBC’s “Squawkbox” he does not think Biden should run for re-election. “So one, I’ve always been a centrist, always believed in supporting whoever is best for the country — Republican, independent, Democrat,” said Ackman. “I think it’s really important that Biden steps aside.” Ackman, who was being interviewed about his recent fight with Harvard University, only made his remarks after being asked about the 2024 presidential race, Fox News reported. “Just on the...

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) took a swing at former President Trump Friday, arguing that despite his myriad of legal woes, the former president is being treated “better” than normal criminal defendants. “Donald Trump is not being treated worse than any criminal defendant. “He is being treated, actually, better,” Swalwell said Friday in an interview with MSNBC’s Katie Zhang. “In fact, most defendants would be in custody and have their bail revoked if they acted the way that Donald Trump has acted.”

A grim-faced Travis Kelce was seen leaving the Kansas City Chiefs' team hotel on Saturday amid reports that he and girlfriend Taylor Swift have had their first bust-up. After a rosy start to their fairytale romance, Kelce and Swift reportedly had their first lovers' tiff after the Chiefs' loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Day. The celebrity super-couple have dominated headlines ever since Swift publicly confirmed their relationship by rocking up at Arrowhead to watch Kelce in action for the very first time. It has even been claimed that they are planning to get engaged in the summer,...

Imam Alhajie Jallow said in an October 13, 2023 Friday sermon at the Madinah Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin and posted on the center's YouTube channel, that the Muslim "brothers" in Gaza are heroes. He said that only Jihad could bring glory and victory to the Muslims, not contracts or agreements, and that every Muslim should be a soldier today. Alhajie continued to say that all the Jews will be killed, executed by the Muslims and that this is a divine promise. Imam Alhagie Jallow was born in Gambia, and he studied at the Islamic University of Imam Muhammad bin...

Explanation: Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it's an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year, perihelion was on January 2 at 01:00 UTC, with the Earth about 3 million miles closer to the Sun than it was at aphelion (last July 6), the farthest point in its elliptical orbit. Of course, distance from the Sun doesn't determine the seasons, and it doesn't the determine size of Sun halos. Easier to see with the Sun hidden behind a tall tree trunk, this beautiful...

“Marginal food insecurity captures worry about running out of food or limited food selection due to a lack of money,” said the note. “Moderate insecurity captures compromises in the quality or quantity of food due to lack of money; severe food insecurity captures missed meals, reduced food intake and at the most extreme going days without food.” In a recent report, Statistics Canada revealed that year over year Canadians were paying more for basic groceries. According to their data, prices had increased: 6 percent more for potatoes to an average $4.97 per kilogram; 7 percent more for stewing beef to...

In testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic this week Dr. Anthony Fauci dazzled the committee members with his arrogance and dissimulation. In response to a question by committee chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) about the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)--a government agency that Fauci directed from 1984 to 2022--issuing grants for "gain-of-function" (i.e., how to make viruses more deadly) research on COVID, Fauci replied "I signed off on every foreign and domestic NIAID grant without reviewing any of the proposals. So, I have no specific knowledge concerning what type of research was funded."...

VIDEOTwo flew over the cuckoo's nest but one of them was only faking it and it wasn't Joe Biden.

Bill Clinton has been spotted in New York City just days after he was accused of 'liking them young' in recently unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents. The former president, 77, looked stony-faced as he collected his belongings from a black truck on Thursday. He was previously holidaying in Latin America with his wife Hillary Clinton during the unsealing of the Epstein documents which began on January 3. Clinton is named multiple times in the court papers - and although he is not accused of any wrongdoing, the documents shine an unwelcome spotlight on his friendship with the late pedophile financier. One...

George Carlin’s daughter has criticized an artificial intelligence-generated voice of her comedian father used for an hourlong standup comedy special based on his catalog of work. “My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination,” Kelly Carlin said on X. “No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI-generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again.” She added that his work should “speak for itself.” “Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there,” she said....

Ukraine suffered a mass Russian missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, its air force said, adding that Moscow had fired some of its most fearsome hypersonic missiles. Air defenses shot down Russian missiles in at least five regions across Ukraine, according to local officials from those provinces. However, no details were given on whether any targets were hit, and far less information about the attack than usual was provided by officials. Ukraine's air force warned during the attack that Russia had fired Kinzhal missiles -- perhaps the hardest conventional Russian missile to shoot down, moving at several times...