Free Republic

As America closes in on a major election, mistrust is brewing around the mysterious government entity that’s now denounced in scary-sounding terms — “the deep state” and “the swamp.” What do those words even mean? Who exactly do they describe? We went on a road trip to find out. As we met the Americans who are being dismissed as public enemies, we discovered that they are … us. They like Taylor Swift. They dance bachata. They go to bed at night watching “Star Trek” reruns. They go to work and do their jobs: saving us from Armageddon. Sure, our tax...

Now that the Supreme Court has unanimously destroyed the dreams of Davos to use January 6th as a means to keep him off the ballot, Donald Trump has passed the easiest of the hurdles in front of his returning to the White House. Some things, politically, in the US still function. This ruling was a lay-up. The SCOTUS had to rule decisively here. Trump was never convicted of ‘insurrection.’ He was impeached and character-assassinated, sure, but none of that carries any weight of law. But, even if you somehow believe he was guilty of the crimes the Democrats accused him...

This shouldn’t even be a question. A great party is trying to produce its presidential nominee. Donald Trump is the leader in the contest so far, and looks likely to be the victor. But the cycle has just started (61 delegates allocated, 2,368 to go) and the party isn’t united, it’s split, roughly 50/50 pro-Trump and not. Nikki Haley is right to stay in and fight. No one has the right to shut her down.... “You alone now carry the banner. Speak up for all the Republicans who have been demeaned, diminished and threatened by Trump. He can no longer...

Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and US Navy vessels in the Red Sea threaten the global economy, endangering the vital Suez Canal trade route. As if 14 such attacks in the past month, and against Israel directly, were not enough, Iran has now joined the fray... This marks the first time since October 7 that Washington has directly blamed Iran... Just after Christmas, however, Iran committed the classic “Washington gaffe” – i.e., telling the truth accidentally – when the Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly described Hamas’s barbaric assault as “one of the acts of revenge for the assassination of General [Qassem]...

The predictive power of horse-race polling a year from the presidential election is weak at best. The Biden campaign can take some comfort in that. But what recent surveys do reveal is that the coalition that put Biden in the White House in the first place is nowhere near as strong as it was four years ago... These danger signs include fraying support among core constituencies, including young voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters, and the decline, if not the erasure, of traditional Democratic advantages in representing the interests of the middle class and speaking for the average voter. Any...

Police say they received calls about gunshots around 6:30 p.m. Two men were found injured on the scene, another man found injured a short distance away. Channel Three has confirmed that all three are young men of Palestinian descent. The men were transported to UVM Medical Center where we’re told they’re being treated for non-fatal wounds. Police haven’t identified nor apprehended a shooter. They’ve closed off the portion of North Prospect between Loomis Street and Brookes Avenue. Around 8:30 p.m. a handful of officers survey the area, shining flashlights in yards and between houses. A member of the Burlington Police...

New Hampshire court records reveal that for John Madore, who killed a hospital security officer, guns and mental illness intersected in dangerous ways. John Madore was barricaded in his Strafford bedroom, with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol and an assault rifle next to him, warning the police officers on the other side of the door. He had just allegedly choked his sister until she couldn’t breathe and knocked his mother to the floor, according to court documents. “I have firearms,” an affidavit quotes Madore as saying, “and this is not going to end well.” That was Jan. 11, 2016, inside his...

Why have the October 7 attacks triggered a culture war in the West? Because parts of our Left are anti-Semitic and the Right is calling them out? Absolutely. But this is also psychological displacement: we’re so shocked by the murder of Israelis, distressed by the bombings in Gaza and, unable to comprehend an intractable problem, that we withdraw into the familiar language of domestic politics. The Times of Israel reports (as spotted by Sumantra Maitra of The American Conservative) that Washington ordered officials to permit humanitarian aid in to Gaza: “The Americans insisted,” said the defence minister, “and we are...

A Maine sheriff's office released new documents Monday that detail two past complaints about Robert Card that give a fuller picture of his mental health struggles and law enforcement's failed attempts to contact him before he fatally shot 18 people and wounded 13 others in Lewiston last week. The documents released by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office say Card was hearing voices and struggling with paranoia and that, according to the U.S. Army Reserve, he recently told a friend he was "going to shoot up the drill center at Saco and other places." Family members contacted local police with their...

An American nurse and her daughter have been abducted in Haiti, in the latest kidnapping episode to draw international notice, as a resurgence of violence grips the capital, Port-au-Prince. In a brief statement on Saturday, El Roi Haiti, a faith-focused humanitarian organization, identified the woman as Alix Dorsainvil, the group’s community nurse and the wife of the group’s director. She and her child were taken from El Roi’s campus near the capital on Thursday, according to the statement. No further details have been made public. “We are aware of reports of the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens in Haiti,” a...

Former President Donald Trump said federal prosecutors have told his legal team that he is a target of their investigation into efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 election. In a post on his Truth Social platform Tuesday morning, Trump said Special Counsel Jack Smith sent his legal team a letter indicating he could face charges in the probe that has been examining Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump said he had been given “a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury which almost always means an...

The Burlington community is calling on town leaders to take action in the wake of a recent middle school incident during which students disrupted a Pride event... According to a letter to parents from Marshall Simonds Middle School Principal Cari Purchase, the incident took place during a school-approved spirit day celebrating Pride month on Friday, June 2. The spirit day was requested and sponsored by Spectrum Club — a student group for LGBTQ+ students and allies... As part of the event, the letter said, Spectrum Club decorated the school with handmade “Happy Pride Month” signs and educational posters with messages...

An old Lutheran church, that has mass in German once a month, is being destroyed by fire right now a few blocks from Harvard Square. A sixth alarm has sounded, streets are closed, and some homes may be evacuated. Given that it is Easter Sunday, I can't help but speculate about anti-Christian terrorism. My mother's whole family and half of my Dad's were descended from German Lutheran immigrants. I know all about Massachusetts, and Cambridge, but this was an active and faithful congregation, please pray for them.

Ukraine: A Right to Exist Something to be aware of, something to reckon with: “How Moscow grabs Ukrainian kids and makes them Russians.” That is an extensive report from the Associated Press. And here is an extensive report from the New York Times: “Russia Signals It Will Take More Ukrainian Children, a Crime in Progress.” My view is: People do not have to read such reports, word for word. They are, of course, tough to bear. But we should be aware of the reality — simply the general reality. And those who want details, of course, can have them... Symbolic...

As we approach the first anniversary of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, two ominous trends are emerging at once. First, Russia is doubling down. It’s pouring fresh troops into Ukraine and launching new offensive operations. Second, poll after poll after poll demonstrate that American support for Ukraine is slipping away. While Americans have sympathy for Ukraine, declining percentages are willing to spend American resources to keep Ukraine in the fight. Yet the outcome of the war is simply too important — to America as well as Ukraine — to allow our support to falter. On the war’s anniversary...

This is a question for FReepers with expertise in the fire service. A grocery store in my small town burned to the ground Tuesday night. The fire was called in about 9:15 PM, after the store closed. Local FD entered the building on arrival but were pulled out quickly, the flames were 40 feet high, the place collapsed within an hour and is a big pile of rubble. Ten area departments assisted with containment, abutters were evacuated but no other structures were damaged. It was announced that the NH State Fire Marshal would investigate (I assume that's routine). Today, there's...

A month after a 19-year-old woman was found dead on Mount Lafayette, another hiker has died at the popular hiking spot in Franconia Notch, Fish and Game said. The 28-year-old man departed on the the 8.6-mile Bridle Path/Falling Waters Loop alone around 11 a.m. Saturday, according to a news release. Rescuers were alerted of the overdue hiker just after 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve. A family member in China had been tracking the hiker’s progress when at 6:15 p.m. the phone was dead and the hiker was lost off a trail south of Mount Lincoln. “The hiker was described by...

I'm posting a vanity to try to get this discussion going. Congressional committee "hearings" or "investigations" are required to have a discrete legislative purpose (separation of powers). Congress is not a permanent Grand Jury or a Star Chamber. The practice of making "criminal referrals" to avoid breaching the authority of Article II (Executive) or Article III (Judicial) co-equal branches is not one of the "Legislative powers herein granted" when we created Congress. In fact, Congress is FORBIDDEN from Bills of Attainder against individuals for the exact reason that Congress is NOT an Executive or a Judicial body. It appears that...

On the night of the 2018 midterm elections, as a wave of anti-Trump sentiment swept Democrats to take control of the House, top Republican Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president. “You have to run,” said Romney, the Republican presidential nominee Biden and Barack Obama defeated in 2012, speaking to the former vice-president by phone. The same night, Romney was elected a US senator from Utah, a post from which he would twice vote to convict Donald Trump in impeachment trials. Romney’s exhortation to a man then seen as a likely challenger to Donald Trump in 2020 will...

For anyone who hasn't seen this - NIH sanctions against EcoHealth Alliance for refusing to comply with grant requirements (they will not turn over records of what they did in Wuhan). I believe this is not unrelated to Anthony Fauci's very recent change in career plans. Click the "source URL" to read the letter.