Free Republic

@RepThomasMassie Our government should not have ownership in private companies. There are so many specific problems with an arrangement like this, but fundamentally, this is not who we are as a country.

President Trump promised voters during his campaign for a second term that he had bigger things on his mind than retribution against opponents. But it is increasingly clear that vengeance is a large part, maybe the largest part, of how he will define success in his second term. His revenge campaign took an ominous turn Friday as FBI agents raided the home and office of Mr. Trump’s first-term national security adviser John Bolton. They brought two broad warrants to search the “premises.” Agents showed up unannounced at his Bethesda, Md., home at 7 a.m. They confiscated his wife Gretchen’s phone...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has paid an emotional tribute to soldiers killed while fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, saying his ‘heart aches’ in a rare admission of military losses. Kim made the comments on Thursday at a ceremony in Pyongyang, where he met with commanders of a unit that had fought for Russia in the western Kursk region, according to North Korean state media KCNA. He praised them as “a heroic army,” with state media photos showing Kim pinning commendation badges on soldiers’ uniforms. Photos released by KCNA also showed Kim pinning badges on the...

Covid vaccine mandates and a lack of transparency by public-health experts produced many unintended effects—or what scientists call “off target” responses. One is a political turn against mRNA technology that could damage U.S. innovation and pandemic preparedness. The Health and Human Services Department recently scrapped 22 mRNA-related vaccine investments. “These vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. “We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.” Let’s dissect these assertions. Start with his claim that mRNA vaccines fail to protect against...

"But where we want to start is about losses, killed in action, wounded in action, missing an action. And what you'll hear me say again and again is any figures where there is incentive and there's no repercussion to lie, then be very very careful with any of this. There's a massive information war that is not only taken on board by people with no lives who do it just themselves, but there's also people with financial incentive to push information, especially on websites like this, as well as state funded propaganda as well. I've got my eye on a...

In May of this year the world was shocked by the Moscow City government decision to unveil a grand bas-relief of Stalin at the Taganskaya metro station in the heart of Moscow. Widely seen as a murderous dictator on a par with Hitler by westerners, Stalin is a much more complicated figure for Russians. He is responsible for the Red Terror of the 30s where millions were shot or sent to the GULAG as well as the mass deportations that still fuel hatred of Russians today in countries like Estonia that were worst affected. But for the average Russian he...

As followers of Christ, we must resist the temptation to reduce complex human suffering to simple narratives that fit our political preferences. The Middle East’s problems will not be solved by reducing them to hashtags or campus chants. They require patient engagement, nuanced understanding, and the kind of costly love that characterizes authentic Christian witness. This means speaking truthfully about Hamas’s terrorism while also acknowledging Palestinian suffering. It means supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while questioning whether all tactics serve the cause of justice. It means caring about Gaza while not forgetting those suffering in many other situations in...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he believes that helping negotiate an end to the Ukraine-Russia war might help him get to Heaven. Trump called into the Fox News program "Fox & Friends" for a phone interview on Tuesday morning, one day after he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House as part of the ongoing efforts to end the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia's invasion in 2022. The president provided updates on efforts to end the war. He lamented the toll it was taking on the lives of Russian and Ukrainian...

Will Curtis Sliwa have any regrets if he wakes up on November 5 and Zohran Mamdani is the new mayor of New York — knowing he could have stepped aside and cleared the crowded campaign field that many fear will split the vote? “Nope,” the Republican candidate told me. So he’s not willing to sacrifice his candidacy to save the city he loves from socialism? “That’s based on the idea that everyone is going to go over and vote Cuomo. Ain’t happening. They hate Cuomo. I’m in the streets every day. All I hear is ‘slapping fannies and killing grannies.’...

Do you feel knots in your stomach due to financial stress? If so, you certainly have lots of company. All of a sudden, everyone is talking about the cost of living and prices are rising by double-digit percentages all around us. There are so many people out there right now that feel like they are “drowning” because no matter how hard they try there simply isn’t enough money for everything. Unfortunately, we are being warned to brace ourselves for even more inflation in the months ahead.When I heard that the cost of vegetables in the United States had gone up...

Donald Trump's special envoy said Russia had agreed to allow the US and Europe to give Ukraine "robust" security guarantees as part of a potential peace deal. Steve Witkoff told CNN it was agreed at the Alaska summit that the US and Europe could "effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee", referring to Nato's principle that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Putin has long opposed Ukraine joining Nato, and Witkoff said the arrangement could be an alternative if the Ukrainians "can live with it". Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky described the US's security...

The Trump administration has launched their own 'Manhattan Project' as reports have suggested one of America's largest chipmakers could be partly nationalized. Intel, the largest chip fabricator in the US, has been in talks with Donald Trump over a potential government stake in the company. While the percentage stake the government is asking for has not been made public, nationalizing a company is typically reserved for national emergencies. The government nationalized a number of banks after the 2008 financial crisis and key logistics companies during World War II. It comes amid concerns that America relies too heavily on TSCM, a...

@KobeissiLetter Are we on the verge of a generational jobs crisis? The 3-month average youth underemployment rate jumped to 17% in July, the highest since 2020. This metric includes unemployed individuals aged 16–24. Now, the youth underemployment rate has climbed by ~5 percentage points over the last 2 years. This is nearly in line with the peak during the 2001 recession and the early stages of the 2008 Financial Crisis. This also signals the US labor market could weaken further, with young workers typically the first to feel the impact when the economy turns. The job market is rapidly deteriorating.

You can almost understand President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics… and his insistence that the economy is far stronger than the employment numbers indicated. After all, the stock market is hitting all-time highs, and the American tech sector is absolutely crushing it. With Nvidia and the rest of the Mag 7 leading the way, the U.S. is spearheading the AI revolution and leaving the rest of the world behind. End of story… right? Well, that depends on which economy you’re talking about. It’s almost nonsensical to talk about “the economy,” because it’s...

Actress and conservative influencer Brett Cooper was just profiled in a lengthy piece in The New York Times. Once a star at the Daily Wire, Cooper has now been signed to Fox News. I have bad news for right-wingers waiting for a young messiah for the culture, however. Brett Cooper is not coming to save you. In fact, she will do what every other conservative on TV and social media does—the same thing Cooper, although only 23, has been doing for years. She’s going to sit behind a microphone and react to liberalism. What Brett Cooper will not be being...

Democrats are making a play for Ohio in next year’s Senate race as former Sen. Sherrod Brown prepares an expected comeback attempt. The Buckeye State was once firmly purple but has become increasingly red in the Trump era. President Trump won the state in 2024 with 55 percent of the vote, and Brown lost his bid for reelection to Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), winning 46.5 percent of the vote. Those totals show Brown was much more popular with Ohio voters than former President Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats think a lower-turnout midterm election could carry him...

A Maryland-based federal judge on Thursday permanently blocked two of President Trump’s memos aimed at eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at universities. Earlier this year, the Department of Education issued an ultimatum to all federally funded educational institutions: eliminate DEI program within 14 days, or face the complete withdrawal of federal funding. ..... Snip..... The Associated Press reported: A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation’s schools and universities. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland stated that the Education Department violated...

Wholesale inflation increased much more than expected in July, raising concerns about a resurgence of inflationary pressures in the economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released the producer price index (PPI) for the month of July, which showed an increase of 0.9% from the prior month and 3.3% from a year ago. Those PPI figures were much hotter than the forecast of prices rising 0.2% on a monthly basis and 2.5% from last year that was estimated by economists polled by LSEG. Core PPI, which excludes volatile components like food and energy, also rose 0.9% from last month...

The U.S. government’s gross national debt has surpassed $37 trillion, a record number that highlights the accelerating debt on America’s balance sheet and increased cost pressures on taxpayers. The $37 trillion update is found in the latest Treasury Department report issued Tuesday which logs the nation’s daily finances. The national debt eclipsed $37 trillion years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections had gross federal debt eclipsing $37 trillion after fiscal year 2030. But the debt grew faster than expected because of a multi-year COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020 that shut down much of the U.S....

... In 2022, after eight years of intermittent fighting in Ukraine’s east, Russia initiated a full-scale invasion, with the aim of reducing a rump Ukraine to a satrapy. Putin has given no indication of renouncing that ambition or of abandoning his broader goal of restoring Moscow’s sway over much of the former Soviet or tsarist empires, including the Baltic states and other nations to Russia’s west. Any “deal” between Trump and Putin (and the U.S. president, who has more recently referred to a “feel-out” meeting, is clearly downgrading expectations) will, given the Kremlin’s longer-term objectives, never be enough. The best...