Free Republic

Biden administration officials have assessed that Russian President Vladimir Putin may use chemical weapons in Ukraine first before resorting to a nuclear confrontation with NATO if his troops continue to lose ground.The concerns, according to six people with knowledge of the matter, come amid a push by the administration to ensure allies are prepared for such an event, as well as to mobilize new resources and investments in manufacturing of detection systems for when the chemicals are used. The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive, internal deliberations, include U.S. and Defense Department officials.

It’s our thirst to understand “why” someone would carry out such a horrific act that drives our curiosity and animates our search for a political villain in these mass shootings. Answers are always few and very unsatisfying. Trying to ascribe rational, logical thought processes to someone who is mentally ill is an exercise in futility. It doesn’t matter if he leaves a right-wing manifesto railing against blacks and Jews or swears allegiance to Antifa and claims to want to stamp out “fascism.” “Politics” — a shooter’s limited understanding of it — isn’t a catalyst as much as it is a...

Donors just didn’t want to back a loser — and that’s just what Mr. Trump is now — a loser. “Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, the second-most prolific GOP donor of the midterms, said Tuesday that he would support [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis over Trump, pointing to the Florida governor’s dominant reelection victory in a state that was considered competitive until recently,” The Hill reported this week. “I’d like to think that the Republican Party is ready to move on from somebody who has been for this party a three-time loser,” said Mr. Griffin, who funded a pro-Trump super political...

“You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t”, said Barack Obama to Joe Biden back in 2019 as Biden was preparing to announce his plans to run for the Democrat Party’s nomination for President of the United States, and run against then-President Donald Trump. At the time Obama made those private remarks to Biden I found it a bit curious. One would have expected the former president to enthusiastically encourage and support his former vice president to run for the top job. After all, they spent eight years together in the White House and knew each other well....

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will be stepping down as the Democratic Party’s leader in the next session of Congress when the House Democrats will be in the minority. Speaker Pelosi’s heir apparent is New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a persistent election denier. Rep. Jeffries has spent much more time demonizing Donald Trump and the Republican Party than working for the American people as the primary sponsor of responsible legislative proposals. With Rep. Jeffries leading the House Democrats starting next year, we can expect more reckless inflammatory rhetoric and more left-wing progressive proposals to fundamentally transform America....

Reprinted with permission from Dr. Naomi Wolf’s Substack.com.This is the eve after a broken election, as broken machines count broken vote tallies, and as broken media “calls” outcomes. Everyone in legacy media is waiting “for AP to call the outcome,” which is sadly hilarious, given that AP has a Memorandum of Understanding that it won’t disclose fully to our Congress, with the news agency Xinhua, the CCP’s chief propaganda arm.Treasonous media call a treasonous election process.In one state, the outcome is being overseen by one of the two main contestants — which is itself a true banana-republic level situation.In my...

On Friday, Old Joe Biden’s chief propaganda minister, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked about Kentucky Congressman and House Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer’s announcement that he plans to begin “investigating the President’s involvement in his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings.” The reporter also asked: “And then, on the merits of the allegations, can you address whether the President was involved in any of his son, uh, Hunter or his brother’s, uh, foreign business deals?” Jean-Pierre gave one of her characteristic stuttering, sputtering, deer-in-the-headlights responses, and never did quite get around to answering the key question. This was no surprise: there...

TOKYO -- On Saturday morning, some of Asia's best-known politicians, corporate leaders and academics gathered at a hotel conference room just steps away from the Japanese prime minister's office. At each place on the table was a large envelope that contained the detailed biographies of the roughly 50 attendees and a white folder with the words "The Trilateral Commission." First time attendees were elated. One Japanese professor told one of the panels he "truly appreciated" the invitation, because "The Trilateral Commission has been a big enigma to me." "Some websites say that all the significant events in the world have...

Those of us who have written for years about the Hunter Biden scandal and the family’s influence-peddling operation routinely read media stories denying the facts and dismissing calls to investigate. This weekend, though, the Associated Press made a real whopper of a claim: that there is no evidence even suggesting President Joe Biden ever spoke to his son about his foreign dealings. I’ve explained how the Bidens have succeeded in a Houdini-like trick in making this elephant of a scandal disappear from the public stage — by enlisting the media in the illusion. But this level of audience participation in...

Exhausted and overwhelmed, Gretchen Miller felt the frustration of the past three years rise up within her. On a whim the 54-year-old from Sydney posted a message to her local community Facebook group. “Does anyone else feel like screaming?” she asked. The responses poured in. “I want to scream because of climate change and economic inequality,” one woman wrote. “Because of real estate agents and landlords,” said another. “My fiancé decided he didn’t love me anymore,” read one reply. Miller said she received more than 100 messages in the first hour. From that callout, the Shout Sisters group was formed....

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that former President Donald Trump asked him to violate his oath to the Constitution on January 6, 2021. Pence said, “I write did it in the book, I will never forget, it was the night before January 6, the president and I were alone in the office in what was ultimately a tense conversation. I had made my position clear, as vice president, I did not believe I had the authority to return or reject electoral votes when the House convened to count the electoral votes, but there...

The Mercers, who were among Trump's major benefactors during his first run for president in 2016, are distancing themselves from the former commander in chief's latest White House bid. Federal Election Commission records indicate that after spending millions to help get Trump elected in 2016, both Mercers have largely cut back their support. GOP megadonors Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer have no current plans to help former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign for the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. The Mercers, a father and daughter who were among Trump's major benefactors during his first run for...

A desperate Vladimir Putin will seek to massively boost mobilisation by sending more troops to fight in Ukraine, and impose martial law in many Russian cities, it was forecast today. Yet the draconian moves could trigger a coup from within the elite even before his 'poor health' incapacitates him, says one expert. And he is now using body doubles who are so like him, it is impossible to tell the difference, it is claimed. The scheme comes as Putin's men were forced to retreat from Kherson last week This comes as the first train arrived in the liberated city since...

Businessman and former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg was forced to apologise at a major business event in Singapore for statements made by his friend and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson criticising China. Johnson was invited as the guest speaker at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore, held earlier this week. During his speech, Johnson described China as a “coercive autocracy”, much to the apathy of Asian businessmen and diplomats gathered. Since Johnson was invited by Bloomberg to the forum, the latter had to bear the brunt of attendees feeling insulted and offended by the Tory leader's...

The story of FTX's downfall is complicated, convoluted, and unbelievably stupid. And the only thing dumber than the people who fell for a 27-year-old tech bro’s promise of wealth and unimaginable riches has been the corporate press’s coverage of the crypto exchange’s implosion. The short of it is this: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is almost certainly a conman and a thief. He opened a “bank” (a crypto exchange), accepted deposits of real money, helped himself to customers' deposits without their knowledge, and then distributed mountains of cash to friends and, more importantly, Democratic coffers. Indeed, Bankman-Fried ranked as the Democratic...

Kari Lake, the perpetually soft-lit, camera-ready political newcomer from Arizona, may have lost her bid to become the state's next governor, but it's unlikely she'll leave the spotlight. A Phoenix-area news anchor for 22 years, Lake called it quits in 2021 and decided to go all in on politics. She fended off better-funded, more qualified GOP challengers in the primaries and ran a ground game in the general election in which she regularly made headlines for tearing into fellow reporters and mocking her political opponent. Lake ran a full Trumpist campaign and pushed a familiar but divisive message that questioned...

Hours before a Thursday deadline that Elon Musk had given Twitter employees to decide whether to stay or leave their jobs, the social media company appeared to be in disarray. Mr. Musk and his advisers held meetings with some Twitter workers whom they deemed “critical” to stop them from leaving, four people with knowledge of the conversations said. He sent out confusing messages about the company’s remote work policy, appearing to soften his stance on not allowing people to work from home before warning their managers, according to those people and internal emails viewed by The New York Times. All...

As we previously reported, in the aftermath of Republicans being projected to retake control of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made it official Thursday in declaring she would “not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress.” “For me, the hour’s come for a new generation to lead the Democratic Caucus that I so deeply respect and I’m so grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility,” Pelosi, who is 82, stated as reports swirled that she was paving the way behind the scenes for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to be her successor....

WASHINGTON — Republicans managed to make their victory in the House seem like a loss by underperforming so badly. But while they did not win control by anywhere near the margin that they anticipated, they did win. And in the House, even the barest majority can work its will if it can hold together to produce 218 votes. The main question going forward is whether Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, who was nominated Tuesday to lead the new Republican majority, can achieve the unity necessary to perform fundamental tasks such as funding the government, or whether unyielding far-right members will...

“We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”With these fighting words, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hailed his sweeping re-election victory last week. DeSantis trounced his opponent, Democrat Charlie Crist, by 1.5 million votes. The blatant gerrymander he masterminded helped Republicans flip four House seats in the state. The results leave little doubt that Florida is now firmly a red state and that he is the non-Trump front-runner for the 2024 presidential...