Free Republic

Russia's weak response to Ukraine's assault into Russian territory is partly due to a persistent flaw in Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership, a warfare expert told Business Insider. Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region in early August and, by late September, said it controlled more than 500 square miles. Russia has not taken any significant swathe of territory back. Michael Bohnert, an analyst at RAND Corporation, told BI that with the way Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded, not even appointing a general to take charge of what is clearly a military situation rather than a domestic...

Americans often pull up roots in search of better jobs and cheaper housing. But in recent years, those moves have drawn more people into regions with higher risk of natural disasters, which have become more destructive because of climate change. Hurricane Milton, a powerful Category 4 storm on Tuesday afternoon, is on a path to hit the Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, area late Wednesday or very early Thursday morning. Yet the metropolitan region has grown by 39% since 2000, boosting its population by an additional 1 million residents during that time. Last month's Hurricane Helene devastated parts of western North Carolina,...

Citing conventional wisdom or an "appeal to authority" will reach out and bite you every time. The proverbial "appeal to authority" in an argument only works when the "authority" is credible. The conventional wisdom that the 2024 presidential race is razor-close is based on polls. Frankly, pollsters themselves are warning us not to trust their work.“There are a lot of sh***y polls out there,” said John Anzalone, who has done polling work for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. And, added Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster, many hardcore Donald Trump voters aren't responding to polls at all, especially online...

The 2024 Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) was held in San Diego, California. The location was not a universally popular choice. California has a deserved reputation as one of the few states that have enacted extremely restrictive legislation against firearms ownership and use. The restrictions make it difficult for law-abiding people to exercise their Second Amendment rights.California is at the epicenter of the battle to restore Second Amendment rights through the courts. Millions of California gun owners are impacted by the unconstitutional laws. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of activists are fighting every day to restore their rights. Many...

WASHINGTON (AP) — If you have stained or chipped teeth, you might be considering veneers, customized teeth coverings that can restore a photogenic smile without more extensive dental work. But dentists warn that these pricey cosmetic enhancements are at the center of a worrisome online trend: unlicensed practitioners without proper training or supervision offering low-cost veneers. These self-described “veneer techs” often promote themselves on Instagram and TikTok, promising a full set of veneers for less than half of what dentists typically charge. Some also market their own training courses and certifications for people looking to get into the business. It’s...

Black girls have a big problem: racist discipline policies in our public schools. At least, that’s the narrative pushed by Democrats in Congress, who are calling for a radical overhaul of public school discipline to address racial disparities among K-12 students. According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), black girls are 5.2 times more likely to be suspended from school compared to white girls. Representing only 15 percent of all girls enrolled in public schools, black girls receive almost half of exclusionary discipline: suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to law enforcement. They are, the report concludes, “overrepresented...

Former President Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump, was denied a new bank account because of a political “cancel mob,” his mother, Melania, claimed of “serious concerns about civil rights violations.” The former first lady said her son, who is now 18, was told he couldn’t open the account at her preferred financial institution in the weeks following the Trumps leaving the White House in early 2021. “I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my long-time bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son the opportunity to open a new one,” Melania wrote in her new memoir,...

Hillary Clinton said on CNN this weekend that repealing Section 230 of federal communications law should be a top political priority. The former secretary of state's comments are a reminder that this vital protection for free speech is far from safe, even if we seem to be on the other side of peak anti-230 politics. Why Politicians Hate Section 230 For anyone who needs a quick refresher: Section 230 protects digital service providers and users from liability for the speech of others. It's really that simple, despite a lot of misinformation about Section 230 that gets thrown around. Section 230...

Sin City blew a kiss goodbye to the Tropicana before first light Wednesday in an elaborate implosion that reduced to rubble the last true mob building on the Las Vegas Strip. The Tropicana's hotel towers tumbled in a celebration that included a fireworks display. It was the first implosion in nearly a decade for a city that loves fresh starts and that has made casino implosions as much a part of its identity as gambling itself. The casino came down with a seven-minute celebration involving 550 drones and 150 "pyrodrones" counting down to the controlled demolition of the resort originally...

But rather than sympathy, hatred grows for the Jewish state One full year after October 7, the nation of Israel is still traumatized and many of its people are still in agony. One full year later, there are still scores of hostages languishing in Gaza, if not dead, and their families remain in daily agony. One full year later, the war with Hamas continues, but now there is also war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as possible war with Iran itself. One full year later, rather than sympathy for Israel growing it is hatred for Israel that is growing.One...

“World’s worst influencer” Caroline Calloway says she is refusing to leave her Florida home in a “mandatory evacuation” zone — even though she knows it’ll likely kill her. “So if you’ve been following Hurricane Milton, um, I’m going to die,” the controversial Instagram scammer said in a video Tuesday, a day before the monstrous storm is expected to kill those who refuse to leave. “It’s supposed to make landfall in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. I’m in Sarasota, I live on the water. It’s a zone A, mandatory evacuation,” she said. The 32-year-old, an early influencer who hawked worships that never happened...

Sharia brings its rules to Europe In an abandoned brewery building in Iserlohn, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, a gang of four, or possibly as many as six, Iranians — apparently some of them had acquired Danish and the others Dutch citizenship – decided to teach another Iranian a lesson. For that Iranian, who had fled from Iran to Germany, where he had been properly admitted as an “asylum seeker,” was an opponent of the regime in Tehran, whereas his four (or six) tormenters were its fanatical supporters. Of course, in applying for admission — some to Denmark and the rest to the...

It’s been obvious for years that China has a Potemkin economy, kept alive by slave labor, market bubbles, and government underwriting. it can’t last forever. The latest grim forecast about the economy comes from Peter St Onge, an economist with a much deeper fund of knowledge about and understanding of the Chinese economy than I could have in a thousand lifetimes.The biggest hint that the Chinese economy was in trouble was the demise of Evergrande, a massive property developer in China. The bankruptcy was huge, with the company’s assets valued at a probably inflated $245 billion and debts of $300...

On Oct. 2, prosecutor Jack Smith filed a 165-page Motion against President Trump that contains nothing new.The document will be revered by the MSNBC crowd, but those people already plan to vote for Kamala Harris.The rest of America — MAGA and undecided voters — will see it as more evidence of a corrupt DOJ.Before we delve into the details, consider this:By issuing the Motion in October, the DOJ violated its own rule, which precludes the release of information within 60 days of an election, if the information could affect the election.After waiting three years, this prosecutor released his allegations just...

---See? Your guns are safe. Except, Glocks are designated as "unsafe weapons" under California law, and if we aren't mistaken, Washington DC law also: "Note that California law classifies ALL Glocks as 'unsafe handguns' because they do not have a compliant chamber load indicator, lack a magazine disconnect mechanism, and until our lawsuit caused California to repeal the requirement, of course lacked microstamping,"

Last week, Israel’s Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times asking the question, “What were Hamas’s leaders hoping for, and what are Iran’s leaders seeking to achieve?” The answer began with a conversation that revealed the central problem with the West’s understanding of Islamic jihadism, one that still vitiates our foreign policy and plans for dealing with Muslim aggressors: our modernist inability to take religion seriously. “What the Israeli military and political establishment failed to understand,” Gantz writes, “in part, was the extent to which Hamas was driven by the goal of waging religious...

Last week, Israel’s Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times asking the question, “What were Hamas’s leaders hoping for, and what are Iran’s leaders seeking to achieve?” The answer began with a conversation that revealed the central problem with the West’s understanding of Islamic jihadism, one that still vitiates our foreign policy and plans for dealing with Muslim aggressors: our modernist inability to take religion seriously. “What the Israeli military and political establishment failed to understand,” Gantz writes, “in part, was the extent to which Hamas was driven by the goal of waging religious...

A report from the medical watchdog group Do No Harm shows that hospitals in the U.S. earned nearly $120 million in four years performing gender transition treatments on nearly 14,000 children under the age of 18 from 2019 to 2023.

Dear Friends, In light of our EXPONENTIALLY deteriorating and growing godless nation, where pith parties are abandoning the God of nature and natures laws; let us hear from the ghosts of our American Founding Fathers and their prophetic warnings to us in 2024 and about this year’s Presidential Elections; One of the most remarkable observations in the study of history is the caution and warnings that are always given by Founders of great civilizations. It seems that those who lay foundations for great civilizations are quite aware of the seeds of pride, selfishness, and contention in human nature which over...

[OFFICIAL.] FROM SECRETARY STANTON TO GEN. DIX. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 1864 -- 12 o'clock M. Maj.-Gen. John A. Dix: This department has received the following reports of the enemy's assault yesterday upon Gen. BUTLER's line, their subsequent repulse, and Gen. BIRNEY's brilliant action, driving the enemy to their inner line of intrenchments around Richmond. HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, Friday, Oct. 7 -- 6:30 P.M. Lieut.-Gen. U.S. Grant: At 6:30 A.M. the enemy, having moved FIELD'S and HOPE'S Divisions from the left at Chapin's Farm road round to our right at Darbytown road, they attacked with...