Free Republic

Is AOC Dropping Hints Of A Future Presidential Campaign? – Progressive New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez famously refused to confirm that she would back President Joe Biden in a 2024 campaign earlier this year, sparking rumors that she may be considering a run of her own. Since then, we’ve heard little else about it. There are no rumors of Ocasio-Cortez launching an exploratory committee and no signs that she is preparing to take on the Democratic party’s incumbent president. That doesn’t mean, though, that the leader of the party’s progressive wing is ruling it out forever.

While they might not be the super records of years past, guns and overall firearms sales are still going through the roof. According to newly released FBI data, background checks exceeded 2.51 million in August, which was consistent with the previous two summers. However, Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting (SAAF) estimates August 2022 U.S. firearms unit sales were at about 1.4 million units, a year-over-year decrease of 3.8 percent relative to August 2021. The decrease affected the handgun segment (−2.7 percent) significantly less than it did the long-gun segment (−7.2 percent). SAAF’s firearms unit sales estimates and forecasts are based...

Here comes the X-59: Supersonic transport may hold a promise of super-fast travel, but it also promises to be extremely loud – and not just to those on the actual aircraft. That is why the Concorde, which was developed as part of an Anglo-French effort and while operated by British Airways and Air France, was typically only used for travel from Europe to North America. The American SST (supersonic transport) effort was grounded mainly due to noise and environmental concerns. Those concerns remain as multiple European nations and environmental groups seek to stop any comeback of supersonic commercial travel. Earlier...

President Joe Biden stood in front of Independence Hall Thursday night to declare, “I will not stand by and watch the most fundamental freedom in this country, the freedom to vote and have your vote counted, be taken from you and the American people.” I half expected him to say he will not allow the elimination of sunshine, nor the banning of apple pie, the Super Bowl, and ice cream. Just two days after joking about turning U.S. fighter jets on disagreeable Americans at a speech in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, Biden returned to the SAME STATE, this time in Philadelphia,...

President Joe Biden delivered an impassioned speech about the state of American democracy and the Republican Party. While there was merit to some of it, his remarks were marred by contradictions. Is this a nonpartisan defense of democracy or a partisan political exercise to win the midterm elections? Biden called on all Americans to join together “regardless of your ideology” to reject extremism, violence, and the refusal to accept election results when the opposition wins. The president asked “Democrats, independents, and mainstream Republicans” to “be stronger, more determined, and more committed to saving American democracy than MAGA Republicans are to...

More Stimulus Checks? We Asked a Former IMF Offical If This Was a Good Idea or Not: This week, Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Wolf and state legislators from his party reaffirmed their commitment to providing direct stimulus payments to residents across the state to cope with the rising cost of gas, food, and consumer products. In February, Governor Wolf announced the PA Opportunity Program, a scheme worth $500 million that would send $2,000 checks to all residents who earn less than $80,000. The scheme hasn’t won support from Republicans, but Wolf and his Democratic colleagues refuse to back down.

Does Trump win 2024? A series of Emerson College polls conducted between August 15 and 29 appear to show former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead over President Joe Biden in a hypothetical rematch. The news bodes well for the Republicans in November’s mid-terms, assuming that former President Donald Trump’s legal challenges and wrangling with the FBI don’t turn off voters in the coming months. Trump holds substantial leads in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Georgia – giving the former president a shot at winning back a total of 36 electoral college votes should he hold all states he won last...

Rolling out a new student loan forgiveness program surely was a better thing for President Joe Biden to be talking about than the anniversary of the Kabul airport bombing that same week, but it hasn’t gone as swimmingly as the White House might have hoped. One of former President Barack Obama’s top economists was scathing in his assessment of the plan, as Jason Furman blasted it as “reckless” and “[p]ouring roughly half trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning. Economists are still debating its inflationary impact a week later.

The FBI’s probe of Project Veritas should have all Americans concerned over the application of the first amendment: Transporting stolen property across state lines is indeed a federal crime, so in that sense, the FBI’s investigation into the stolen diary of President Joe Biden’s daughter is entirely appropriate. Two Floridians pleaded guilty last week to stealing the diary with the apparent intent to sell it to Project Veritas, a conservative undercover journalism outlet. For its part, Project Veritas contends it believed Ashley Biden’s diary was legally obtained when it took possession. The outlet reportedly compensated the Floridians with $20,000. However,...

Analysis: Taiwan is Relying on World War II Era Submarines – It is hard to put an expiration date on military hardware, and some platforms remain in service decades after first entering service. The United States Air Force continues to operate around 48 B-52 Stratofortress bombers that date back to the 1950s and early 1960s, while the United States Navy returned its four Iowa-class battleships to service in the 1980s, only to retire them nearly a decade later. In late 2020, the United States Navy also marked the 50th anniversary of the USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), one of two amphibious...

In the last couple of years, there has been a lot of attention on the build-up of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It has undergone a major modernization effort and is now the largest naval force in the world. Just last month, the PLAN launched its third aircraft carrier – the second to be entirely indigenously built. This will allow China to flex its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. Likewise, there has been great speculation regarding China’s efforts to develop a capable fifth-generation fighter aircraft and a medium- to long-range stealth bomber. In very short order, Beijing...

The Russian defense industry has some struggles ahead. Despite claims of self-sufficiency, it turns out that Russian industry needs Western components and Western support. One of the most autarkic industries in one of the world’s most autarkic economies is suffering from supply shortages because of sanctions. Does this mean that autarky in the defense sphere becomes impossible? If so, what does that mean for the pursuit of security for modern states? Theoretically, states should carefully guard the chains that supply their defense industrial bases with goods, as a loss of access to global markets (or even to specific suppliers) could...

Does it really have the radar signature of a bumble bee? The U.S. Air Force thinks so. I am talking, of course, about the F-22, a $108 billion program that at the time of its development was the most advanced fighter in the world. The F-22, though, is expensive to fly and maintain. It sets the Air Force back $68,000 per hour of flight – more than the F-15E Strike Eagle and the F-16C Fighting Falcon. Why did the U.S. military insist on buying it despite the cost? The main reasons are its stealthiness; its supercruise, or ability to fly...

Will the Su-75 “Checkmate” Reach Serial Production? – Earlier this month, it was reported that Russia’s highly-touted Su-75 “Checkmate” won’t make its maiden flight until at least some time in 2024 at the very earliest. However, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) – a division of the state-owned military-tech conglomerate Rostec – also announced that it would build four prototypes of the lightweight single-engine fighter in the coming months, with a goal to launch Checkmate serial production just three years later. “We use advanced super-computer technologies in the Checkmate project, which enables us to cut substantially the timeframe of building the...

Is A Trump-DeSantis Ticket Possible At This Point: Popular Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been rumored to be considering a 2024 presidential run for some time now, but with the genuine possibility of a third Trump campaign lingering, it’s unclear whether DeSantis is taking the idea seriously? DeSantis is second only to Trump when it comes to smear campaigns from Democrats and the press, making the two men seem like a perfect coupling for some. With the January 6 investigation still ongoing and the recent FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago, however, the Florida governor has a lot to think about over...