Free Republic

Calling last week's riot at the US Capitol "the worst thing that has ever happened in America," Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA) has filed a bill that would permanently bar Donald Trump from entering the building. "Above all else, members of Congress deserve to feel safe as they go about conducting the people's business," she said. "I, for one, would be greatly reassured if I knew that the Capitol Police were to be authorized to shoot him on sight should he ever attempt to enter this sacred place." Inasmuch as Trump was not in the Capitol when the riot took place,...

Here's What You Need To Remember: Though the Pentagon admitted to the existence of a stealth jet in 1983, the secrecy surrounding the F-117 was so effective that the public never had any inkling of the Nighthawk’s true appearance, nor even its designation (widely believed to be the “F-19”) until was finally unveiled in 1988.

Liz Cheney and Kevin McCarthy are making two very different bets on Donald Trump — and the one who guesses right may find themselves with a future leading the GOP. The decision by Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, to split with the minority leader and embrace Trump’s impeachment marks the most dramatic rift in the upper rungs of GOP leadership since Trump took office. It caps a years-long tussle between the party leaders over how closely the GOP should align itself with Trump and where the party should go after he leaves office.

A lawyer for Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon shaman” who took part in the rioting at the U.S. Capitol last week, is calling on President Trump to pardon his client and to “stand up and own these people” who participated in the unrest. In an appearance on CNN on Thursday, attorney Albert Watkins said his client “felt like he was answering the call of our president” when he stormed the U.S. Capitol with a pro-Trump mob last week. He likened the president’s supporters who participated in the siege to the Jonestown cult members who committed mass suicide in 1978.

The Biden stimulus package is truly epic in size. It would be more than twice the size of the 2009 Obama budget stimulus and would come on top of the more than US$3 trillion in Covid-19 budget stimulus measures enacted last year. It would also be coming at a time that the U.S. registered a record budget deficit last year, which raised our public debt to GDP ratio to over 100 percent. That ratio was higher than that which prevailed after the Second World War. Mr. Biden is justifying his spending proposal on the grounds that all too many people...

Fewer Americans will be alive to see Joe Biden Inaugurated than were living on Election Day. This has probably never happened before. Here’s the math. Across 2019, the US averaged about 8000 deaths per day. In 2019, we averaged about 10,000 births per day. That is, by the way, the lowest figure in decades, part of a long-term, accelerating decline. By the end of 2020 it was estimated that the daily rate of new births might have declined to as few as 8800 a day. for now, though, let’s just stick with the 10,000 figure. A normal delta between deaths...

In his inaugural address, President-elect Joe Biden could announce that he is pardoning Donald Trump. It would raise a furor on the Left. But it would also allow Biden to declare that he is following through on his pledge to unite America.

Watching concertina wire installed on the "unscalable" fence encircling the Capitol reminds me of a story told about my Great-Grandfather Harold. It was the 1930s, telephones were new in homes and Harold's neighbor, Hulda, didn't yet have a phone and was constantly using Harold's phone! So Great-Grandpa got out his hammer, nails and lumber and quietly set to work building a fence. "Why ya building a fence, Harold?" Hulda asked, flirtatiously. "Why do you need a fence?" "Well, I'll tell ya, Hulda," responded Grandpa around a mouthful of nails. "It's to keep some chickens in and some chickens out." Hulda...

In another cancel culture move, it seems Middlebury College wants to revoke Rudy Giuliani’s honorary degree. This seems in line with what Harvard University students want to do and revoke degrees of prominent Trump-affiliated conservatives like Ted Cruz and others. This was posted as an editorial in the Middlebury College’s student newspaper, the Middlebury Campus: “…Winning is wonderful. Winning in sports. Winning elections. It beats losing them. But the reality is that winning is only fulfilling if you do it through the rules, and you do it by being able to contribute to other people.” These were the words that...

Who and what we are is a huge determinant of what we can be. A Biden presidency born in stripping his predecessor of the basic right to speak cannot end well. Can Biden find a way to be magnanimous to Donald Trump?

Imagine this scenario: A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor pilot races toward a target on the ground and when within striking distance, drops a pair of GPS-guided precision bombs. As the bombs fall from the sky, they themselves notice another, higher-priority target elsewhere on the ground. While one of the bombs stays on course, the second adjusts its trajectory, aiming directly at the second, higher-priority target. Both bombs hit their marks — and all the F-22 pilot had to do was fly them out and release them.

It’s not uncommon for Cheney to break ranks with Trump, as she’s collided with the president on a number of foreign policy issues and ways to mitigate the coronavirus. Cheney condemned Trump’s military removal from several theaters. She rejected the Republican push to overturn the 2020 election results that was based on false instances of voter fraud. The Wyoming Representative is also an avid supporter of mask-wearing and social distancing measures and championed Dr. Anthony Fauci for his work during the pandemic.

Aspecter is haunting conservatism—the specter of a Progressive blacklist that seeks to expunge the Right. A string of President Donald Trump’s online accounts blocked or restricted his access following the deadly U.S. Capitol siege last week because of escalated fears that he may incite additional insurrection—what conservatives are calling the “progressive purge.” Since last Wednesday’s turmoil at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter has booted Trump from its platform, Facebook and YouTube suspended the president, and any Right-leaning Twitter accounts who championed a pro-Trump stance have either seen a drastic decrease in followers or have been kicked off the platform. Cautions about...

There’s no doubt that this is the largest Iranian warship to ever sail. But what is it for? Meet the Markan. What Iran Is Doing Iran recently commissioned what is by far their largest ship ever, the Makran, a former oil-tanker-turned-warship. The Islamic Republic calls the Makran a forward operating base ship, intended to extend Iranian reach farther out to sea by acting as a do-it-all launchpad that can keep helicopters and drones fueled and supplied, especially in the shallower littoral waters to the country’s southwest.

On this date in 1811, Louisiana planters commenced their executions of rebel slaves involved in the German Coast Uprising. Also known as the Deslondes rebellion after the surname of its mulatto commander, this was a larger insurrection than the better-known Nat Turner rebellion: in fact, it was the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history. Louisiana at this point was still new to the Union courtesy of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase; Congress in 1811 would take up the question of statehood for the former French colony and its liability to slave rebellions stoked by Gallic sugar magnates offered no small store...

On this date in 1739, two French youths were executed by musketry in the French Louisiana colony for the murder of two Choctaws — a gesture of juridical diplomacy that didn’t work out as the musketeers hoped. Our source for this unusual event is Patricia Galloway’s “The Barthelemy Murders: Bienville’s Establishment of the ‘Lex Talionis’ as a Principle of Indian Diplomacy” from the Proceedings of the Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society, Vol. 8 (1985). The “Bienville” of Galloway’s title was Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the French Colonial Governor of Louisiana. It was a post he had held...

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and researcher who has received almost $20 million from the Department of Energy was arrested Thursday after he allegedly failed to disclose ties to the People’s Republic of China. Mechanical engineering professor Gang Chen faces charges of wire fraud, failing to file a foreign bank account report, and making a false statement in a tax return, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston revealed Thursday.

Pollster Frank Luntz has always been a highly accurate expert over the years that I have always respected and is someone I would recommend following on Twitter. Luntz was on Fox News last night with some pretty important stats with his latest polls. One of his data points really was shocking to me: that so many Trump supporters would vote for him again, even considering events at the Capitol Building last week.

January 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Corporate authoritarianism has come to America in the form of a secular technocracy where liberal businesses, backed by the uni-party Deep State, get to decide what is and isn’t acceptable political dialogue. This is an all-out assault not only on our Constitutional freedoms, but on conservative, Christian supporters of President Trump. The collective purging of the president (and others) from social media last week was a concerted effort meant to destroy him and the populist, nationalist movement he led. It was intended to send a message to any future political candidate who wants to run...

Prof. Jonathan Turley, a constitutional scholar and longtime Democrat, has called for a "thorough, no holds barred investigation of the 2020 presidential election." Turley says that "while I don't personally believe the election was stolen, the fact that tens of millions of voters do is cause for concern. Rather than telling these people to shut up and sit down, I think it would better serve the quest for unity if all the claimed evidence cited by Trump and his supporters could be carefully examined in a fully transparent and open process." "Contrary to media claims, these claims have not really...