Free Republic

Progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is taking sides in a high-profile Democratic Senate primary that's seen as the next major showdown between the far left and the party establishment. Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday endorsed Abdul El-Sayed in battleground Michigan, in the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. El-Sayed, who if elected would make history as the nation's first Muslim senator, has long been backed by another progressive champion, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He is facing off with two more moderate candidates, including centrist Rep. Haley Stevens, who is tacitly supported by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Schumer and...

WATTERS >> The Democratic Party is getting squeezed and they're not even putting up a fight. This is the new battle. HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy joins us now. How you doing, Mr. Secretary? RFK >> I'm very good, Jassee. It's good to be back with you. WATTERS>> Good to see you. So, your father, your uncle fought communism hard. How much of a danger do you think this new breed of communism is here in America? RFK>> I'm very concerned. I don't think my father and my uncle would recognize the Democratic party today. And you know all the the...

President Trump has made a deal with Iran. On Friday, Vice President JD Vance will attend the official signing in Geneva of a 14-point US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding that covers the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's nuclear ambitions, the lifting of sanctions, a $300bn reconstruction fund for Iran and a ceasefire. The deal has gone down badly in the US, and with good reason. Gerry argues that it's a calamity for America and a betrayal of the Iranian people. Could it also be the undoing of JD Vance? It looks like he's been set up as the...

Sweden, together with the European Commission, will hold talks with the Taliban. The goal is to enable deportations to Afghanistan - but the announcement is being criticized. "A deal with extremists," says Annika Hirvonen (MP). Migration Minister Johan Forssell (M) tells TT that the Swedish government has been "very proactive" in the EU on securing deportations to Afghanistan. The issue of being able to carry out more criminal deportations, i.e. of people who have been convicted of crimes in Sweden or who pose a threat to Sweden's security, is one of my most important priorities, he says. According to Forssell,...

The concentration of knife attacks in the Barcelona metropolitan area widens the gap between the official discourse on crime and public perception of security. Crime scene cordoned off iby the regional police in Barcelona on May 4, 2026 - @AlertaMundoNews on X, May 4, 2026 Barcelona and its metropolitan area saw an unusual sequence of knife violence this weekend: four stabbings in just 24 hours, two of them fatal. The most serious incident occurred on Saturday morning. A woman was killed in broad daylight in one of the quietest residential areas of the municipality. It did not take place in...

Italian bishop backs imam’s presentation of Islam inside Catholic parish churchArchbishop Giovanni Intini attended an April 15 event at an Italian parish where local Imam Khaled Bouchelaghem delivered what journalist Andrea Zambrano called an ‘Islamic catechism. An imam delivered a presentation of the Islamic faith inside a Catholic parish church in Brindisi, Italy, with the participation of the local bishop.On April 15, the parish of San Lorenzo in Brindisi, southern Italy, hosted an event titled “Do You Know Islam? Let us explore together the pillars, the meaning of life, and the celebrations of the Islamic faith,” in which Imam Khaled...

A decade ago, Peter Hitchens warned that the atheist campaign to expel Christianity from Western public life would not produce a neutral, secular vacuum—but would instead open the door to something else entirely. In an interview on Conversations, he observed: “When they drive Christianity out of Europe, as they’re rapidly succeeding in doing, they will not create an atheist paradise. They will leave a space for Islam.” His point was not that Islam advances by force of argument alone, but that civilisations cannot remain religiously empty. The attempt to force Christianity from public life—education, law, and government—does not produce neutrality....

What happens when someone dissents from the leftist establishment narrative in a way that is so compelling and convincing that the continued wide acceptance of that narrative is imperiled? What happens is that the leftist media establishment deploys its strongest rhetorical weapons against the offender, hoping to destroy or at least cripple the dissident before he or she is able to amass a significant following, or to dishearten and disperse that following if it already exists. This is why the April 2026 issue of Tablet magazine contains a massive article, over 6,000 words long, damning with faint praise the pioneering...

No matter how far liberals sink, we can always count on them to explore new depths of pettiness. For instance, leave it to liberals to grouse about a modest and historically appropriate change to a commemorative coin now in circulation. Then, leave it to those same liberals to blame President Donald Trump for the design when, in fact, the change occurred during the final months of former President Joe Biden's administration. […] … (L)iberals have speculated that the removal of the peace-signifying olive branch symbolizes Trump’s bellicosity. […] As usual, however, the liberals got it wrong. In fact, the Citizens...

The Time Traveler appeared suddenly in my study on New Year’s Eve, 2004. He was a stolid, grizzled man in a gray tunic and looked to be in his late-sixties or older. He also appeared to be the veteran of wars or of some terrible accident since he had livid scars on his face and neck and hands, some even visible in his scalp beneath a fuzz of gray hair cropped short in a military cut. A black eye patch covered one eye. Before I could finish dialing 911 he announced in a husky voice that he was a Time...

Greetings Readers, Friends, and Other Visitors: The Time Traveler appeared suddenly in my study on New Year’s Eve, 2004. He was a stolid, grizzled man in a gray tunic and looked to be in his late-sixties or older. He also appeared to be the veteran of wars or of some terrible accident since he had livid scars on his face and neck and hands, some even visible in his scalp beneath a fuzz of gray hair cropped short in a military cut. One eye was covered by a black eyepatch. Before I could finish dialing 911 he announced in a...

The Time Traveler appeared suddenly in my study on New Year’s Eve, 2004. He was a stolid, grizzled man in a gray tunic and looked to be in his late-sixties or older. He also appeared to be the veteran of wars or of some terrible accident since he had livid scars on his face and neck and hands, some even visible in his scalp beneath a fuzz of gray hair cropped short in a military cut. One eye was covered by a black eyepatch. Before I could finish dialing 911 he announced in a husky voice that he was a...

"The Time Traveler" by Dan Simmons http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2006_04.htm A time traveler visits from several decades back to understand the start of the Long War.

Does any one remember a post from many years ago that fits this description. The Setting: A man is in his study/living room at night, reading by lamplight. * The Visitor: A man appears suddenly. He is gaunt, weary, and dressed in strange or rugged clothing. He reveals he is a descendant of the man he is visiting. * The Warning: He describes a total collapse of American civilization. He explains that there is a way to stop it, but it requires a specific, seemingly mundane change in the present. * The Cryptic Ending: In the final moments, the visitor...

October 2012 Message from DanWhy I Voted For Barack Obama in 2008:Dear Readers, Friends, and other Visitors:Yes, this is that most dreaded of things this time in an election year – yet another political comment. We’re all tired of them – especially when they come from some actor or “celebrity” or otherwise totally uninformed and irrelevant person. I don’t even rise to the level of “minor celebrity” – outside of my moderate band of readers I’m unknown – and I have no pretense to relevance this election year. The only thing that might entitle me to a political opinion...

"It never occurred to me in my earlier creations of these freewheeling monthly or bimonthly "Messages from Dan" that I would have to write a Message about a previous Message. But it seems obvious that I must do just that. (For those visitors who may have missed the April 2006 Message, please find it in the archives linked above—or be warned that what follows here will be very cryptic, at best.)"... Other forum-posters were incensed that I could not see the true evil stalking the world today—the United States of America, with the mendacious madman George W. Bush at the...

The below is a fictional piece, long winded, but certainly one of the most required short stories that should be read by all Americans, expecially those in political office. April 2006 Message from Dan Greetings Readers, Friends, and Other Visitors: The Time Traveler appeared suddenly in my study on New Year’s Eve, 2004. He was a stolid, grizzled man in a gray tunic and looked to be in his late-sixties or older. He also appeared to be the veteran of wars or of some terrible accident since he had livid scars on his face and neck and hands, some even...

"The invasion of Iraq was not an act of revenge or justice. (Just as the bombing of the Ploesti fields was not an act of pique at the occupied Romanians.)From the Time Traveler's perspective -- and from the Bush Administration's perspective -- the Iraq invasion is seen as the second move in a very serious chess game in which the only absolute goal is to neutralize an opponent's ability (and stated goal) to acquire and deliver weapons of mass destruction more devastating than fully fueled Boeing 737's."......" The point here is that we can argue that the second move in...

The Time Traveler appeared suddenly in my study on New Year’s Eve, 2004. He was a stolid, grizzled man in a gray tunic and looked to be in his late-sixties or older. He also appeared to be the veteran of wars or of some terrible accident since he had livid scars on his face and neck and hands, some even visible in his scalp beneath a fuzz of gray hair cropped short in a military cut. One eye was covered by a black eyepatch. Before I could finish dialing 911 he announced in a husky voice that he was...

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Only one in four Americans approves of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader, while about half — including one in four Republicans — believe President Donald Trump is too willing to use military force, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday. Some 27% of respondents said they approved of the strikes, while 43% disapproved and 29% were not sure. About nine in 10 respondents said they had heard at least a little about the strikes, which began early on Saturday. The poll was conducted during the strikes on Iran by the U.S....