Free Republic

In “A Hebron ‘Emirate’ or a Colonial Deception?” (7/9/25), the Wall Street Journal and its editorial author Mahmood Jabari complete the amazing feat of distorting facts through an entire editorial, from the first words to the very last. It would seem that such an achievement would be impossible, but this op-ed accomplished it. Let’s start from the title. Israel cannot possibly be considered “colonial” by any stretch of the imagination. The 3,000-year Jewish presence in Israel is documented in history books, substantiated by numerous archaeological findings, and described in the Bible. Jews are from Judea (as the word “Judea” implies),...

The NYC Partnership threw a party — but no one really showed up. A who’s who of the New York City business community were no shows for a Tuesday meet and greet session with socialist democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. The list of New York City-based CEOs that declined the Partnership’s invitation includes Jamie Dimon, the nation’s top banker and chief of JP Morgan, the nations largest bank; Steve Schwarzman, the CEO of private equity powerhouse Blackstone; Brian Moynihan, the head of Bank of America, the nations second largest bank; Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, the worlds largest asset...

In half a year, the impossible became obvious: borders closed, recruits returned, Iran retreated, and elites were exposed—all because people finally said, “Enough.” In less than six months, the entire world has been turned upside down. There is no longer such a thing as conventional wisdom or the status quo. The unthinkable has become the banal. Take illegal immigration—remember the 10,000 daily illegal entries under Biden? Recall the only solution was supposedly “comprehensive immigration reform”—a euphemism for mass amnesties. Now, there is no such thing as daily new illegal immigration. It simply disappeared with common-sense enforcement of existing immigration laws—and...

...South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, sent special envoys to Australia and Germany to discuss defense and trade issues, and plans on dispatching delegations to several others. Brazil and India announced plans to increase their bilateral trade by 70 percent, to $20 billion. Indonesia says it is nearing a treaty with the European Union that would drop most tariffs on both sides to zero. And in Vietnam, which Mr. Trump said had accepted 20 percent tariffs on its goods headed to the United States before last week’s letters, the deputy trade minister emphasized efforts to reduce her country’s reliance...

John Brennan spent years lying to Congress, the press, and the public—yet now claims he's "clueless" about a DOJ investigation. He’s only clueless about how not to lie. When asked why the current Department of Justice might be investigating him, former CIA Director John Brennan answered, as was his wont, with a complete lie: “I am clueless about what it is exactly that they may be investigating me for.” Clueless? Hardly. Brennan knows full well that his fingerprints are on some of the greatest scandals of the last decade. These machinations have threatened the very integrity of our institutions and...

-SNIP- ... In his second term thus far, Trump has defied his critics with several major international wins, and he’s relished the results. His green light for the June 22 US strikes on Iranian nuclear-related targets was a stunning interpretation of what defines “America first.” At the NATO Summit in The Hague days later, he pivoted from years of lambasting European partners to securing a historic agreement to lift Alliance-wide defense and defense-related spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035, while reaffirming shared security guarantees. Both the Iran and NATO moves are legacy-defining, peace-through-strength actions. They could...

As a warming planet delivers more extreme weather, experts warn that the Trump administration is dismantling the government’s disaster capabilities.In an effort to shrink the federal government, President Trump and congressional Republicans have taken steps that are diluting the country’s ability to anticipate, prepare for and respond to catastrophic flooding and other extreme weather events, disaster experts say. Staff reductions, budget cuts and other changes made by the administration since January have already created holes at the National Weather Service, which forecasts and warns of dangerous weather. Mr. Trump’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year would close 10 laboratories...

The climate science establishment is fond of lecturing us about the dangers of rising temperatures. With the return of Donald Trump as US President, however, it is rising scrutiny, not the rising heat, that has them most alarmed. In May, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Gold Standard Science," requiring federally funded agencies to ensure their work is accountable, reproducible, and subject to open debate. It was unremarkable in tone, bordering on mundane. Yet the reaction was swift and bitter. The clause insisting that scientists consider dissenting views and protect employees from retaliation for expressing them cuts across...

It’ll be months before many provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will take effect, but the impact for some parts of Black Chicago can be seen a mile away. It’s going to be bad, real bad. It might be premature to make firm predictions on how the wide-ranging bill will impact individuals and their households. However, considering its historic changes to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps, many are predicting the Trump Administration’s signature legislation will have a dramatic effect on low-income Americans. Some say work requirements and other changes could result in households receiving fewer...

From 2018 and 2024, the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington D.C. arranged for the ‘resettlement’ of 6,299 ‘refugees’ in Maryland. Nearly 1 in 5 of them came from the Islamic terror state of Afghanistan and 1 in 10 came from the equally violent and dangerous terrorist state of Syria. Nearly 70% spoke no English. The second most common language was Arabic. However in Washington D.C., once part of the state and likely to be part of it again if retrocession reform advocates get their way, only 73 ‘refugees’ were resettled in 6 years. ... D.C. is small, but Vermont, which...

Widespread, abrupt terminations have left Justice Department and FBI employees wondering if they will be next, people familiar with the matter say.The Trump administration is firing and pushing out employees across the Justice Department and FBI, often with no explanation or warning, creating rampant speculation and fear within the workforce over who might be terminated next, according to multiple people with knowledge of the removals who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. Some people are simply fired, delivered a notice signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi that cites the broad powers afforded to the president in the...

Unmoored from power and panicked by Trump’s momentum, the left lashes out—from Congress to campus to the street—with rage born of fear and fading influence. Across the political left, from orthodox Democrats to Antifa in the streets, the opposition to Trump has lost its collective mind. The House minority leader and now self-styled tough guy, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, poses with a baseball bat to show how dangerous he is in opposing Trump’s budget bill. Jeffries harangued Congress for eight hours; Sen. Cory Booker went on for 25—both to no effect. Bernie Sanders and AOC hit the rally trail in private...

President Trump sure knows how to spoil an economic mood. Three days after he signed the GOP’s big budget bill, saving the economy from a scheduled $4.5 trillion tax increase, Mr. Trump was back playing the role of Tariff Man. On Monday he announced 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, while adding to renewed will-he-or-won’t-he uncertainty for the U.S. economy and trading partners. In letters to Japan’s Prime Minister and South Korea’s President, Mr. Trump huffs and puffs again about bilateral trade deficits, which he mistakenly thinks are a sign of foreign exploitation. “We must move away from these...

The West is failing to catch up to Russia's production of the most basic unit of war for the past half-millennium — gunpowder. The modern propellants and explosives that power war have largely been offshored. While Western manufacturers are churning out shell casings, they are short on the materials to fill them with. A dearth of ammunition from NATO allies has long hampered Ukraine, but is more recently alarming the Western alliance. "Putin's war machine is speeding up, not slowing down," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a June 9 speech in London. "In terms of ammunition, Russia produces...

~I have received several complaints from readers wanting to know why I didn't observe the twentieth anniversary of the so-called 7/7 bombings yesterday. Well, it's for the same reason that SteynOnline no longer observes the 9/11 anniversary. Because we dishonoured the dead: we were summoned to a great societal challenge and could not muster the will to rise to it. As I wrote (all together now) twenty bloody years ago: It has been sobering this past week watching some of my 'woollier' colleagues (in Vicki Woods's self-designation) gradually awake to the realisation that the real suicide bomb is 'multiculturalism'. Its...

Zoran Mamdani built his dream on radical chic—but now that he's winning, he's scrambling to bury the blueprint. After his first-place win in the New York City mayoral primaries, Zoran Mamdani is furiously denying everything that he once glibly thought was cutting-edge and cool. So, like a good postmodern relativist, Mamdani now claims he didn’t really mean that violence was merely a “construct.” I suppose Mamdani asked Jewish New Yorkers—the target of 44 percent of all hate crimes in the city—and discovered that their concussions and blood were all too real. As a good soldier in the ranks of Black...

On last week's Clubland Q&A, I recalled the summer of 2016, which I spent touring the Continent from the Côte d'Azur to southern Lapland interviewing female victims of sexual assault by migrants. (This was research for a book that I never got to write because, upon my return to the United States, I spent most of the next three years being sued by Cockwombling Cary Katz.) In particular, I spoke to dozens of women who no longer went themselves, and no longer permitted their children to go, to municipal swimming baths. I am not sure North Americans quite appreciate the...

President Trump's Justice Department and FBI have concluded they have no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a "client list" or was murdered, according to a memo detailing the findings obtained by Axios. The administration is releasing a video — in both raw and "enhanced" versions — that it says indicates no one entered the area of the Manhattan prison where Epstein was held the night he died in 2019. The video supports a medical examiner's finding that Epstein committed suicide, the two-page memo claims. Why it matters: The findings represent the...

SummaryIn his feud with Trump, Musk announces "America Party" Musk plans challenges to Republican incumbents Trump calls third party "ridiculous," says US is built for two-party system Investment firm delays launch of Tesla ETF WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump called Elon Musk's plans to form a new political party "ridiculous," saying Musk could have fun with his new project but that the United States functions best under a two-party system.A day after Musk escalated his feud with Trump and announced the formation of a new U.S. political party, the Republican president was asked about it before boarding...

Trump has largely shut down the southwest border by ending asylum programs and deploying troops. But those moves have shrunk the pool of easy-to-deport migrants.TIJUANA, Mexico — When President Donald Trump pledged to launch the “largest deportation operation in American history,” this border city swung into action. The local government declared a state of emergency. Federal authorities built a shelter for up to 2,600 deportees, complete with beds, showers and white-coated chefs. It was, one local official said, the “zombie apocalypse scenario.” But five months after Trump took office, the shelter is nearly empty. So few deportees have arrived —...