Free Republic

Those of us of a certain age will remember a time, some 40 years ago now, when President Ronald Reagan advocated the Strategic Defense Initiative, Project High Frontier, and various other related programs, all built around the basic concept that we should have defenses against incoming missile attacks. Throughout all of human history, military preparedness has involved both offensive and defensive elements. An army might have swords and longbows for offense, while being equipped with shields for defense. Cannons and cannonballs made up the offense, fortresses and moats provided a defense. Thus it has been for thousands of years, but...

An 85-year-old Idaho woman fatally shot a home intruder in an act of self defense. County Prosecutors stated that Christime Jenneiahn committed a “justifiable homicide” after she shot an armed burglar who handcuffed her to a chair and threatened to kill her multiple times. Jenneiahn shot and killed 39-year-old Derek Condon, presenting “one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation” that Bingham County prosecutor Ryan Jolley has ever heard of, according to an incident review written Tuesday.

A stretch of Jackson Heights has devolved into an illegal migrant shopping district — an unchecked open-air market where everything from women to stolen goods can be had, The Post has learned. Roosevelt Avenue near 91st Street is littered daily with migrant vendors hawking goods they ripped off from shopkeepers just steps away, while prostitutes proposition passersby at all hours — and frustrated merchants and residents say they’re helpless to do anything about it. “It’s relentless,” said Milton Reyes, who manages Mi Farmacia pharmacy on the avenue. “You should see it on Saturdays. It’s so heavy you can’t even step...

Tomorrow is Tax Day in America - April 15th, the day before Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia (April 16th). So Monday represents America's formal Emancipation Day from what H & R Block & Co like to dignify as "Tax Season". As I used to say on Rush every year round this time, the acceptance of that term is not a good sign: Baseball should have a season, but not tax. Nevertheless, in the brokey brokiest nation in the history of brokeness, on this day the season of 1040s and 1099s draws to a close, and so, as we...

President Trump on Sunday blasted the far-left judge overseeing the Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial which is set to begin on Monday. Recall that Trump’s lawyers asked for a 90-day delay so they can pour over the thousands of pages of discovery, but the judge denied their request. Trump went off on Judge Merchan for giving his lawyers a short period of time to read through the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg illegally hid. “Judge Juan Merchan, perhaps the most highly conflicted Judge in New York State history, only gave us a short...

Ukraine's top commander said on Sunday Russian forces aimed to capture the town of Chasiv Yar by May 9, setting the stage for an important battle for control of high ground in the east where Russia is focusing its assaults. The fall of the town west of the shattered city of Bakhmut by the date Moscow marks the Soviet victory in World War Two would indicate growing Russian battlefield momentum as Kyiv faces a slowdown in Western military aid. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who warned this weekend that the situation in the east had deteriorated, said Russia was focusing its...

Police believe killer Joel Cauchi was 'targeting women' after fatally stabbing six people in a horror rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction. … The 40-year-old's motives have yet to be confirmed, but a police source claims investigators believe Cauchi was 'definitely targeting women'. The source explained police had viewed extensive footage of Cauchi's movements throughout the shopping centre and observed him selecting his victims. 'I don't think there's any other way to look at it,' the source told the Daily Telegraph. 'You can see on the footage he walks past other people. He just keeps moving past them and then attacks...

Republican lawmakers on Saturday demanded the U.S. launch a retaliatory strike against Iran for the drone and missile attacked launched against Israel. On Saturday, Iran launched hundreds of suicide drones toward Israel and later ballistic missiles in a retaliatory attack for an airstrike on the Iranian consulate building in Syria that killed Tehran’s top commanders. President Joe Biden vowed prior to the attack to do everything possible to protect Israel. However, aid to Israel amid the country’s war with Hamas has been delayed due to division within the Republican party. Following the attack, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced the House...

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that women in his state could die from a 123-year-old law that bans nearly all abortions except to save the life of the mother. Partial transcript as follows: MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what’s happening in your home state of Arizona, as you know the State Court ruled an 1864 Civil War era law can take effect that would criminalize abortion, it’s on hold at the moment, but this is a live issue. Do you have confidence that your state legislators will take action before it...

The White House has announced the agreement to have President Biden debate former President Trump in three debates this summer. The debates will be held in the basement of the Biden family home in Wilmington, Delaware. Several conditions were placed on the debates by the President including his interruption of the debates whenever he has to assist family members in taking showers. Additionally, if he has to assist a family member in recovering from an overdose, he may interrupt the debate. Debate interruptions will be without penalty. A Lighthouse For The Blind teleprompter may be positioned to assist the President...

Protester who threatened city council weeps at arraignment

Apair of U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyers in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea were reportedly among the assets employed to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones headed toward Israel last night. There are strong signs these ships may have fired Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) anti-missile interceptors in the course of those operations, which would mark the first use of those weapons against real incoming threats.

Layoffs continue across the freight and logistics industry, with companies in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Texas announcing job reductions and facility closures over the past two weeks. Universal Logistics Warren, Michigian-based Universal Logistics is permanently shuttering two of its subsidiaries and laying off a total of 677 employees, according to notices recently filed with the state. The layoffs are related to Universal-operated entities Logistics Insights Corp. and Universal Dedicated of Detroit, an auto parts warehousing and logistics facility. Both operations were in Detroit. Universal Dedicated of Detroit’s closure will affect 230 truck drivers who worked from the facility. Logistics...

Here’s the newest example of how New York City is in favor of violent crime. In Manhattan, a 30-year-old man named Jean Carlos Zarzuela punched a 54-year-old woman so hard that he broke her nose.Zarzuela was arrested for that, but Manhattan Judge Laurie Peterson released him without bail.Four days after Judge Peterson released Zarzuela without bail, he punched a 9-year-old girl in the head.This is yet even more proof that New York City is in favor of violent crime.

CNN's legal analyst Elie Honig writing in a Cafe Brief newsletter that was reprinted in New York magazine on Friday presented both the pro and anti Trump ways of looking at the Alvin Bragg case that takes place on April 15 in Manhattan. It is obvious which of the two point of view that Honig thinks is most realistic in "Donald Trump’s Trial Is a Rorschach Test."

A growing number of Americans want President Biden to encourage Israel to cease its military action in Gaza, according to a new poll. A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that 37 percent of surveyed Americans want Biden to encourage Israel to stop its military actions in Gaza — slightly up from the 31 percent who said the same in February. Another 23 percent said in the new poll that Biden should encourage Israel to decrease its military actions in Gaza.

Far-left anti-Israel activists in Chicago demanding President Joe Biden end U.S. aid to Israel cheered and applauded a massive attack of hundreds of drones and missiles by the Islamic Republic of Iran on the Jewish state, which ultimately failed but had initially posed a severe threat to residents throughout Israel. At a Chicago conference on Saturday of the March on the Democratic National Convention 2024 — a coalition of far-left groups planning to protest the DNC in August to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel, attendees — many masked — expressed support for Iran’s missile and drone attack...

Murders have dropped by up to 20% in some major US cities — including the Big Apple — so far this year, according to a new report. New York City has seen a 15% dip in killings in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year, the Wall Street Journal said. The five boroughs had 88 murders in that time period, a significant dip over the 104 in 2023, the outlet said.

President Biden met with G7 leaders in an emergency session Sunday after reportedly telling Israel that the US would not take part in a counterstrike after Iran’s drone attack — and Iranian and Israeli authorities prepared for their next moves. “President Biden spoke by secure video with the leaders of the G7 today,” the White House wrote in a post on X above a photo of the commander in chief and his top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during the meeting, with other heads of Group of Seven countries appearing on a video screen behind them.

President Biden is hoping to avoid an all-out eruption in the Middle East after Iran sent hundreds of missiles and drones, nearly all of them intercepted, toward Israel in retaliation for an attack on an Iranian facility in Damascus that took out a top general. Biden now has to convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other allies not to escalate tensions in the region that have become beyond frayed since the start of the war in Gaza in October. Biden reportedly told Israel’s leader that the U.S. would not participate in any offensive operations against Iran going forward.