Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump's businesses received millions of dollars from foreign entities located in 20 different countries during his presidency, according to a new report released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight committee. The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, released the report and provided documents from Trump's former accounting firm that show that 20 governments, including China and Saudi Arabia, paid at least $7.8 million during Trump's presidency to business entities that included Trump International Hotels in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, and Trump Towers in New York. The 156-page report by House Democrats is...

THE SYSTEM OF ocean currents that bring warm water to the north Atlantic Ocean is likely to collapse by the middle of the century if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, a new study has found. Researchers in Denmark studying the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) expect it to collapse this century under current projections of future emissions. The study, published today in scientific journal Nature, expects that the AMOC will collapse some time between 2025 and 2095, with “high confidence” that it will happen as soon as the middle of the century. The AMOC regulates how heat moves from...

Steven Freeman felt, in his bones, that something was wrong with the election. It was November 2, 2004, and the exit polls had predicted an overwhelming victory for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. But as the night rolled on, the margins grew for President George W. Bush—especially in Ohio, where the race remained uncalled as the clock ticked into the wee morning hours. For most of the world, the uncertainty didn’t last. Kerry conceded the next day, making a cordial call to Bush, after concluding that a recount in Ohio wouldn’t change the outcome of the race. But Freeman, then...

Is there anything liberals can do about Ron DeSantis other than quietly seethe, loudly condemn him every time he makes headlines and hope that his political flaws — his distaste for glad-handing, his less-than-inspiring public-speaking style, his conspicuous unlikability — will take him down before he gets anywhere close to the presidency? It would be tempting to write off DeSantis, the bombastic Republican governor of Florida, as another unelectable right-wing lunatic unfit for national office. We’ve made that mistake before. It’s reliably depressing to revisit 2016 and the misbegotten liberal conviction that America couldn’t possibly elevate Donald Trump to the...

I have seen this many times before, but it never fails to bring a smile to my face. Maybe THAT'S my problen. What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is...

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is done being underestimated. Having vanquished both a Donald Trump-backed Republican challenger and Democratic star Stacey Abrams to win reelection, Kemp is looking to expand his influence in his second term, free from the caricature of the gun-toting, pickup-driving, migrant-catching country boy that emerged during his first campaign for governor. A new vision of Kemp steering his party toward a non-Trumpian conservatism made its debut in his November victory speech after it became clear that he had defeated Abrams by a much larger margin in their rematch than he had in their tight 2018 matchup. “This...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is entering 2023 as one of the hottest commodities in Republican politics amid speculation that he’s nearing a campaign for the White House. DeSantis was sworn in for a second term in the governor’s mansion on Tuesday, seizing on the moment to tout the accomplishments of his first four years in office and lay out some of his priorities for the next four. But many Republicans remain skeptical that he’ll stay in Tallahassee for another four years, given his growing stature on the national stage and increasing likelihood that he’ll challenge former President Trump for the...

"Debts are awkward, especially debts of gratitude. When we owe others too much, we can find it hard to express our appreciation. If we are not reflective, we might minimize our debt, or simply forget it. If we think highly of ourselves, we might ignore a debt to someone we regard as less important. In the worst case, we can resent the people who have helped us, and portray them in a negative light, just to avoid the feeling that we, too, are vulnerable people who sometimes need a helping hand. "Americans (and many others) owe Ukrainians a huge debt...

Nobody in America had a better election night in 2022 than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. With a nearly 20-point margin of victory over Charlie Crist, he far exceeded even the boldest pollster prediction of a 13-point win, and did so in sharp contrast with the fortunes of many other Republicans around the country who were expected to cruise to easy wins, but didn’t. The result caught the attention of Republicans across the country who might otherwise not have taken note of the Florida governor’s performance. That’s not to say that DeSantis wasn’t already under consideration by many forward-thinking Republicans around...

Former President Donald Trump – who himself has come under fire for Republicans’ lackluster performance in the midterm elections – is blaming Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the party’s apparent failure to flip the chamber’s majority in its favor. “Mitch McConnell, the Republicans Broken Down Senate Leader, does nothing about this,” Trump on social media Friday night. “He’s too busy spending vast amounts of money on bad Senator Lisa [Murkowski] of Alaska when Kelly [Tshibaka] is FAR better.” Yet Trump’s own spending choices in this year’s midterm elections have also drawn criticism.

According to the latest election day exit polls: Average so far is: 58% Republican 14% Dem 28% Other The “other” category is likely independents leaning Republican and Republican voters who won’t talk to pollsters. THIS IS HUGE!

President Trump made a big unforced error attacking DeSantis at his rally the other day. Not just because he did so just before an election day on which the Republicans simply must destroy the Democrats–after all, Governor DeSantis doesn’t need Trump’s support to win. If Trump went into full attack mode it wouldn’t dent DeSantis’ reputation one little bit. So Trump’s attack is electorally irrelevant (which in itself is an unforced error, as it shows Trump to be weaker than he wants to look against a political rival). Trump’s attack was a mistake because he opened up an old wound...

Tanner Firl doesn’t understand why anyone would need a budget. “It never made sense to me,” the 29-year-old tells CNBC Make It. “Most people have a problem not spending money. We have almost the opposite problem.” Firl and his wife, Isabel, who live in Minneapolis, are practically allergic to spending money on anything they don’t see as a necessity, a shared attitude that plays into the couple’s financial strategy. Firl is part of the FIRE — short for financial independence, retire early — movement, and specifically adheres to a strategy known as “lean” FIRE. Practitioners of this version of FIRE...

Below is my column in The Hill on issuance of a subpoena for former President Donald J. Trump by the January 6th Select Committee. It brought to together two obsessions: the Bears and the law. The final scheduled play in both the Bears game and the Committee hearings had one striking similarity. In both cases, the throw was solid but it came too late and the reception was much in doubt.Here is the column:Two events consumed Washington on Thursday. The hapless Commanders won a game against the Chicago Bears — and the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 issued a...

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s Tuesday testimony ought to ring the death knell for former President Donald Trump’s political career. Trump is unfit to be anywhere near power ever again. Hutchinson’s resume alone should establish her credibility. The 25-year-old had already worked at the highest levels of conservative Republican politics, including in the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (LA), before becoming a top aide for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. In short, Hutchinson was a conservative Trumpist true believer and a tremendously credible one at that. She did not overstate...