Free Republic

Much of Europe is anxious about Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but there’s little to suggest the continent’s arms manufacturers expect a crisis. Europe is seeing a dramatic boost in defense budgets, driven by both long-standing pressure from Washington and the continent’s own reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That promises a glut of military contracts for weapons-makers in Europe as well as in the U.S., South Korea and elsewhere. That also explains why the industry is relatively relaxed about Trump. If he pulls the U.S. out of NATO and leaves Europe to go it alone, the...

Mahmoud Abbas likes to present himself, as head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as the “moderate” alternative to Hamas. The idea seems to be that the PA’s largest faction, Fatah, does not engage directly in terrorism, and therefore the PA deserves the vast sums the American government has been providing it. But “off-duty” members of the PA’s security forces have engaged in terror attacks on Israelis in Judea and Samaria. The PA continues its “Pay-For-Slay” program, by providing large monthly stipends to imprisoned terrorists and to the families of terrorists who died while committing their attacks. The PA has recently...

Elon Musk dropped a shocking revelation about how the government handed the Navy $12 billion to build new submarines, only to find that not a single submarine was built with the money. Musk, who revealed that he first heard the revelation from Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), said Navy officials shrugged when asked where the money for the submarines went. “There’s a case where I think Senator Collins was telling me about how she gave the Navy $12 billion for more submarines, got no extra submarines, and then held a hearing to say where the $12 billion went,” Musk told Joe...

Democrats have been mercilessly mocked for protesting President Trump’s address to Congress with paddles — with even left-leaning TV hosts among those roasting lawmakers for bringing “Brazilian steak house” and “bingo” vibes. Stephen Colbert also mocked the protests in a segment on his CBS’ “The Late Show,” sarcastically noting how the “Democrats are getting ready to fight back with their little paddles.”

Most people watching President Trump’s first joint address to Congress approved of his speech according to snap polls. Seventy-six percent of people approved of the president’s remarks, while 23 percent disapproved as reported Wednesday in CBS News and YouGov survey results. A majority of respondents, 63 percent, said Trump spent a lot of time on issues they cared about compared to 28 percent who said the opposite. Another 9 percent said he spent no time at all on their topics of interest. Respondents also noted that his speech left them with a positive feeling overall, 68 percent said the speech...

Democrats have been mercilessly mocked for protesting President Trump’s address to Congress with paddles — with even left-leaning TV hosts among those roasting lawmakers for bringing “Brazilian steak house” and “bingo” vibes. The Democratic lawmakers were trolled after showing up to the joint session of Congress Tuesday night brandishing the black signs — complete with phrases like “false” and “Musk Steals” — which they repeatedly flashed as Trump was delivering his speech. But the stunt was widely ripped for falling flat — even among notoriously left-leaning MSNBC hosts and late night comedians. “Why are democrats just sitting there? The signs...

VIDEONothing better illustrates the Democrats taking the losing side of an 80/20 divide than the public reaction to the House Sergeant At Arms being forced to REMOVE a howling lunatic Wolfman aka Al Green from the House Chamber during President Trump's speech. The divide on unfavorable to favorable reactions was EXACTLY 80/20 as you can see with the Democrats once again being on the LOSING side.

Now that the busyness of the holiday movie season is passed, I want to get back into writing more about faith on Sundays. I've always like this post, which I wrote a few years back for Patheos. Seemed like a good one to share again. Like most people who grew up evangelical, I went through a Rapture obsession.I remember when it started. I was 15 and my parents took me to a dc Talk concert. During the show, the trio played a cover of Larry Norman's "I Wish We'd All Been Ready." When the group got to the last verse,...

The Inauguration of President Lincoln. Dispatches to the Associated Press. WASHINGTON, Saturday, March 4. The procession is now forming, though a heavy rain is failing, and the streets are almost impassable with mud. The avenue is filled with a dense mass of people. The ceremonies will take place in the Senate Chamber. SECOND DISPATCH. The procession reached the Capitol at about quarter to twelve o'clock, escorting the President elect. At a subsequent period, the President and Vice-President, together with the Justices of the Supreme Court, Members and Ex-Members of Congress, Foreign Ministers, and other persons of distinction, assembled in the...

The war in Ukraine has disproportionately hurt Hungary and Slovakia. To add insult to injury, Zelensky declined to renew a gas line deal that was providing the two European nations with essential energy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico have once again broken ties with the European Union and shot down the latest Ukrainian aid package. Fico has said that he would not send Ukraine another euro and called “peace through strength” measures “unrealistic.” Furthermore, Fico sees through Zelensky’s victimization and is reportedly “sick” of his games. “He roams Europe begging and blackmailing, asking others...

@TRobinsonNewEra 🚨IMPORTANT UPDATE ON TOMMY'S SITUATION🚨 Please share this everywhere!!! UK STATE TORTURE : Tommy Robinson has suffered 128+ days so far in solitary confinement at HMP Woodhill — 22 hours a day locked in a cell, facing an 18 month sentence for a non-crime of showing the public a documentary he was banned from showing. His legal team appointed an independent Clinical Psychologist, with a Doctorate and 15+ years in NHS forensic mental health to assess him and they deliver a damning report: ‘This is mental torture.’ Assessing him with ADHD and Complex Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), she...

The Democratic Party is, put mildly, struggling here in the early part of the year of our Lord 2025. After a decisive defeat at the hands of a man who they devoted all of their energy to destroying, Dems have been forced to stand by and watch as that man rapidly undoes all of the nefarious things that they did for the last four years in an attempt to shred the Constitution of the United States and establish permanent one-party rule. Worse yet for them, the majority of Americans are cheering on all that's happening. A political party serious about...

China warned it is ready for any “type of war” with the US in an alarming escalation as President Trump’s tariffs went into effect. “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said late Tuesday. Tensions grew stiff between the two nations on Tuesday as Trump bumped up a 10% tariff on Chinese imports to 20%, claiming the trade measure would halt the flow of fentanyl into America. Jian’s statement, reiterated on X by...

On today's Morning Joe, responding to President Trump in his Joint Address to Congress having called Joe Biden "the worst president in American history," Joe Scarborough said: "I'm quite confident that ten, 20 years from now, when they're ranking presidents, Joe Biden will be doing very well."Scarborough did stop short of adding, "and f-you if you don't believe it," in contrast to his claim last year that, contrary to reports of Biden's decline, "this is the best Joe Biden ever." Question: How is it possible to rank Biden as president at all, given that as many of us knew, and...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says a Ukrainian decree from 2022 ruling out negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin raises the question of who could sit at the table in potential peace talks aimed at ending their three-year war A Ukrainian decree from 2022 ruling out negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin raises the question of who could sit at the table in potential peace talks aimed at ending their three-year war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side,” Peskov noted during his daily conference call with reporters.

In my previous message, I shared with you about how I grew up working hard on our family farm and starting my own lawn care business on the side; I told you about my first “real” job at the Holiday Inn and how I became the assistant manager of the entire complex at age 16. I also mentioned my work at the radio station, becoming Program Director by age 20 and working for a weekly county newspaper before opening my own photography studio. There’s more to my story than I can tell here, but I’ll share a few more tidbits...

The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s order requiring the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department to immediately pay approximately $2 billion owed to contractors for work already completed. The ruling comes after a temporary stay issued by Chief Justice John Roberts on Feb. 26, which paused a lower court’s mandate that compelled the government to disburse the funds by midnight that day. But in a 5-4 decision Wednesday, the justices denied the Trump administration’s request to vacate the lower court’s order, allowing the payments to proceed. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and...

A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration push to rebuke a federal judge who imposed a quick deadline to release billions of dollars in foreign aid. The court’s action leaves in place Ali’s temporary restraining order that had paused the spending freeze, Ali is holding a hearing Thursday to consider a more lasting pause. The majority noted that the administration had not challenged Ali’s initial order, only the deadline.

Trump also pointed out a 13-year-old boy in the gallery who is battling cancer and has been made an honorary police officer. The president said that he was making the child an agent of the Secret Service. "Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is DJ Daniel, he is 13 years old, and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer," Trump said. "But in 2018, DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer, the doctors gave him five months at most to live. That was more than six years ago....

Target is facing a 40-day consumer boycott starting Wednesday over the company’s shift away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. We’re asking people to divest from Target because they have turned their back on our community,” Rev. Jamal Bryant, a prominent Atlanta-area megachurch pastor [see comment] who started the boycott, said in an interview with CNN. The boycott, which begins during the start of Lent, comes more than a month after Target made changes to its DEI programs and at a difficult period for the company as it faces an onslaught of tariffs in the middle of a challenging...