Free Republic

In 2018, President Trump addressed the United Nations in the annual presidential welcome to that body. In his speech, he said, “Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.” The German delegation laughed. Did I ever tell you about how Connie Francis came to record Who’s Sorry...

Pete Hegseth knew he was going to be attacked yesterday. He was prepared for it and quickly brushed it aside. It was merely a rehashing of the rumors, most spurious, that have besieged his character since President-elect Donald J. Trump announced him to helm the Pentagon. Hegseth shored up GOP support yesterday, that was clear when a host of Democrats went on an unhinged tirade against the man who calmly disarmed all of them. After the hearing, as Katie wrote, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) announced she would support Hegseth’s secretary of defense nomination.

The Biden administration yesterday notified Congress of their intent to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. It's the first step in Trump's future plan to annex Cuba (that's a joke, please laugh). Here's an interesting fact: President Reagan, out of all the presidents, added Cuba to the list in 1982 for the island nation's alleged ties to "international terrorism and support for terrorist groups in Latin America. In 2015, Obama took Cuba off the list. In 2021, the Trump administration put them back on the list, saying the country was "providing support for acts of international...

• Let’s start with the University of Idaho, which has closed its cultural centers (that is, leftist ideological pods) following a long overdue directive from the State Board of Education to close down DEI programs (though of course some programs will be renamed and staff shuffled around, so there will need to be a second phase of DEI-hunting).Inside Higher Education quotes a student employee of a now-shuttered “Women’s Center,” which is merely being moved to a new unit under a new name:“The transition strips away culture and history entirely. We want to be grateful for what is left over and...

BE READY for attacks America Explosives found in Chicago South Side high-rise apartments HVAC worker finds “I came across some C4, some explosives, a rifle, A LOT OF FAKE IDs, a lot of fireman stuff, a lot of police force stuff, it was fake” All these illegal migrants weren’t just imported for votes and cheap labor. There are planned attacks coming

MSNBC is facing some tough times, and even its top star, Rachel Maddow, isn't escaping the budget cuts. According to The Ankler, a showbiz newsletter, Maddow has signed a new five-year deal with the network, but her salary is taking a hit, dropping from $30 million to $25 million over that period. An unnamed TV exec shared that despite the pay cut, MSNBC was eager to keep Maddow on the team: "It's a challenging moment, and they had to hold onto her. No one else can replicate what she brings to the table. You can't just create a brand like...

A VW van sits among burned out homes, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo Preston Martin figured the retro blue Volkswagen van he slept in for a year during college was a goner, given that he parked it in a Malibu neighborhood just before the Palisades fire ripped through, reducing homes and cars to rubble and charred metal. So the surfboard maker was stunned to find that the vehicle survived. Not only that, a photo of the vibrant bus taken by an Associated Press photographer was circulating widely on television and online, giving viewers a measure...

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Senate Confirmation Hearing go so badly for the Democrats as it did today. They tried and failed to crush Pete Hegseth, who was supposed to be the easiest to discredit. They should worry about how the rest of these will go, considering how badly they did at the outset. Kirsten Gillibrand’s screeching left me with a migraine I couldn’t shake. Mazie Hirono made the migraine worse. And, well, someone memed it on X [video at link, all of the harpies shreiking at the same time]. Pete Hegseth’s service in the military more than...

The left is at war with reality and has been for decades now. And Old Joe Biden has just confirmed that this war is still raging, although it has become so familiar that many Americans overlook the pitched battles that are still being fought. This war may have begun in earnest in the early years of the battle over abortion when leftists became accustomed to insisting that the child growing inside the womb was a “part of the woman’s body” and/or just an insignificant “clump of cells.” Today that fantasy is still very much with us, along with the left’s...

Reports surfaced Tuesday that Israel is on the cusp of reaching a deal with the terrorist group Hamas that would include terms for a ceasefire and the release of some of the Israeli hostages captured on October 7, 2023. Experts say the two sides wouldn’t be this close to a resolution without the strong words and actions of President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration.

Wow! These people are committing crimes against a Duly elected President! James O’Keefe just exposed The Pentagon is secretly working to sabotage our new commander in chief Donald Trump This is not only criminal, it’s literally treason! ============================================================ An undercover journalist for James O’Keefe has caught a former Hillary staffer, now-senior advisor to the the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Department of Defense, talking about how he’s trying to sabotage President Trump. This FBI ‘spy hunter’ didn’t reveal much detail, only to say “I’m in conversation with a couple of retired generals to try to explore what we can...

Jihadist Genocide Of Christians In Nigeria Bloodiest In 2023: 8,222 Hacked To Death From Jan-Jan ..Nigeria: second deadliest genocide country (150,000 deaths since 2009) after Syria’s 306,000 deaths since 2011 … Nigeria is second in the world list of ’Fourteen Genocides’ (ongoing) and ‘Seven Warning Genocides’ Emerging Shocking Statistics: 1,450 Christian Deaths In 2023 In Benue, 1,400 In Plateau, 822 In Kaduna, 730 In Niger, Etc 8,400 Christians Abducted In 2023 And 840 Never Returned Alive From Captivity Military, Police Abducted 800 In 2023 In South-East Who Never Returned Alive Till Date Jihadist Herdsmen Abducted 1000 Easterners In 2023 In...

Israel announced Wednesday that it is sending a team of firefighting experts to Los Angeles, following an inquiry on Tuesday by Breitbart News during a press briefing by the Office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Los Angeles area has been devastated over the past week by the intense destruction of the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, among other, smaller blazes. Tens of thousands of homes have been lost, and many families displaced. The Times of Israel reported: The Fire and Rescue Authority will send a team of five fire protection experts to the United States this evening, to...

NATIONAL STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM DAY Each year, National Strawberry Ice Cream Day on January 15 celebrates one of the choicest flavors of ice cream. All flavors of ice cream are recognized on July 1 in case you're wondering! #StrawberryIceCreamDay Strawberry ice cream is made by blending either strawberries or strawberry flavoring with eggs, cream, vanilla, and sugar. Food coloring is often used to give it the pink or light red hue. During James Madison's second inauguration in 1813, strawberry ice cream was served. It's also one of the three flavors found in Neapolitan ice cream along with vanilla and chocolate....

A skull once thought to be Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoë IV was identified as that of a Roman boy with developmental disorders, ending decades of speculation. The search for Arsinoë IV’s remains now continues. Credit: Austrian Academy of Sciences/Austrian Archaeological Institute CSI methods indicate that the skull from the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology’s collection does not belong to Arsinoë IV. An interdisciplinary research team led by anthropologist Gerhard Weber from the University of Vienna, in collaboration with experts from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, has reanalyzed a skull discovered in 1929 among the ruins of Ephesos (modern-day Turkey). For decades, it...

Breaking news: With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in less than a week, members of the Jan. 6 Select Committee and White House are privately discussing whether to issue presidential pardons to lawmakers who served on the panel, according to lawmakers and sides.In an interview, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chaired the Jan. 6 committee, said he spoke to the White House counsel’s office last month about the issue. Thompson noted that he hadn’t talked directly with President Joe Biden on the topic, but the veteran Mississippi Democrat said he’d accept a pardon if offered.“I believe Donald Trump...

Elad Zagman from TPS documented the activities of the IDF forces that operated on Wednesday night in the Netzarim Corridor in the Gaza Strip. The photographer captured the soldiers in action, with the rising full moon and symbol of the hostages in the skies of Gaza. Habsor stream, which flowed nearby, served as a natural backdrop for the forces' activities.

Iran “never” plotted to assassinate Donald Trump during last year’s U.S. election campaign and never will in the future, President Masoud Pezeshkian told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an exclusive interview in Tehran. Asked about the reported plot against Trump outlined by U.S. authorities, Pezeshkian said: “This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia. ... Iran has never attempted to nor does it plan to assassinate anyone. At least as far as I know.”

15 January 2025 Wednesday of week 1 in Ordinary Time Killeedy, Ireland Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingHebrews 2:14-18He took to himself descent from AbrahamSince all the children share the same blood and flesh, Christ too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could take away all the power of the devil, who had power over death, and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it was not the angels that he took to himself; he took to himself descent from Abraham....

A strategic partnership treaty that Russia and Iran are poised to sign will govern the two countries' relations for the next two decades, the TASS state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing Iran's ambassador to Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are due to hold talks in Russia on Jan. 17 after which the Kremlin has said they will sign a long-awaited comprehensive strategic partnership pact.