Free Republic

This weekend, the US and Iran will hold their first semi-direct talks in years, despite the previous insistence of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in barring such talks. What changed? First, the Iranian security situation has degraded rapidly over the last few months, thanks to their stupidity in attacking Israel directly as well as indirectly through their proxies. That has left the mullahs more exposed than ever before in their 46-year run as theocratic tyrants in Iran. That's not the only reason, the New York Times reports today. The Iranians may have finally realized that Donald Trump returned to office with the...

Remember that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Professor Moriarty tried to escape from the holodeck? Well, the folks at Fermilab probably saw it, since they are currently launching a one year series of tests to find out if our entire universe is a hologram. Do we live in a 2D hologram? There’s no short answer, but physicists believe it may be possible. The holographic principle — a property of particle physics’ string theory — proposes that information about a region of space can be ascertained by the information on the surface that surrounds it — much...

I. DON'T. KNOW. Normally, when I don't know about something, I try not to start a post about the subject. None of us knows everything about everything, and there is a reason why God invented the division of labor. Let people who know about how to do things do them. But in this case, the REASONS why I don't know whether Trump's tariffs will help or hurt America are important, and I hope I can help clarify at least some of the reasons why people are lining up on different sides of the issue. ARE TARIFFS GENERALLY GOOD ECONOMIC POLICY?All...

Alex Brandon Petards, hoisting, some assembly required. By Democrats. For the past three weeks, Democrats have screamed about how an unelected multi-billionaire has gained access to the levers of federal spending, mainly to pull them to the OFF position. At first they claimed that Elon Musk had no authority to operate his DOGE project or access government information, until it turns out ... he did.

Mexican illegal immigrants are so productive and contribute so much to the United States that she is angry that Donald Trump wants to send them back to Mexico, their home. 🚨 BREAKING: Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum condemns Donald Trump's attacks on immigrants and stresses:"The Mexicans there sustain the economy of the United States -- in the countryside, in services, everywhere!" pic.twitter.com/jHlGZYrVi5— Chris D. Jackson (@ChrisDJackson) January 27, 2025Uh, yeah. I get it. Makes perfect sense to me. Claudia Sheinbaum, the socialist President of Mexico, is big mad at Trump for enforcing immigration laws in the United States. She is currently...

Russian President Vladimir Putin ruffled some feathers inside his own country this weekend when he appeared to dismiss the recent Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk Oblast inside of Russia as having had "no effect" on the overall war. He insisted that the primary objective of the war had been to retake and fortify annexed lands, primarily in the eastern Donbas region, and that Ukraine's actions in Kursk had actually hastened Russia's success there. Meanwhile, Ukraine's top military commander was marched out to counter those claims, saying that the invasion of Kursk was "working" and that Russia had made no new...

Anyone who has followed our coverage of the Pentagon's UFO investigatory office currently named AARO in its latest incarnation (All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office) is likely familiar with the name Luis Elizondo. ---SNIP--- Among the revelations is his testimony that his assignments revealed that there is no question about the existence of non-human, extraterrestrial intelligence. He claims that this nonhuman intelligence not only exists but is superior to our own. He describes it as being "at best" a serious national security issue and, at worst, "the possibility of an existential threat to humanity.” If that leaves you with an uncomfortable lump...

Now things will really change! Eight members of the House Republican caucus combined with House Democrats to remove a Republican Speaker for the crime of … [checks notes] … allegedly working with Democrats. And now, the House will grind to a halt while Republicans pick the next Speaker, who will still have to work with a Senate run by Democrats and a Democrat in the White House to accomplish anything other than investigations. Which, by the way, Kevin McCarthy already had operating. (snip) So what comes next? Probably more epic faceplanting. (snip) The most likely way out of this impasse...

Ron DeSantis went on Bill Maher and agreed with Maher that Trump had lost the 2020 election and them tossed Kari Lake under the bus Gee, I can't figure out why this guy is down by 60 points in the REPUBLICAN primary 🤣🤣🤡 pic.twitter.com/euphYHHAj1— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) September 30, 2023 Disqualifying for me ever voting for DeSantis for anything, forever. https://t.co/F4ByHgHJiR— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) September 30, 2023

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem endorsed Donald Trump for president Friday night during a campaign rally in Rapid City. She is the fourth governor to endorse the former president during the Republican primary.Traditionally, Republican governors remain neutral in a primary, waiting to get behind whoever comes out the winner for the nomination. For example, Iowa’s Governor is thought to be leaning toward Ron DeSantis but is not endorsing in the primary in order to let voters make up their own minds. The other three Republican governors who have endorsed Trump are Mike Dunleavy, Governor of Alaska, Jim Justice, Governor of...

Is Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, about to sing like a canary against his former boss? Politico writes that he “signaled that his defense is likely to include blaming the former president as the primary driver of the effort.”Granted, it’s Politico, and they are not fans of Trump World. The online site relishes stories that pit the various players against each other. But, in this case, it is entirely plausible. Why would Meadows do time for Trump if he can strike a deal? Meadows has proven himself a political opportunist, in my opinion. He seems to...

It is a small study, but a very disturbing one. We keep being told that injury to the heart from the COVID vaccine is very rare, but a study done in Basel Switzerland indicates that the rate of subclinical myocarditis after the COVID vaccine is hardly rare at all. In fact, in a study with only 777 participants with a median age of 37--all medical professionals getting the COVID vaccine–the incidence of elevated cardiac enzymes 3 days after injection was pretty substantial, at almost 3%. The CDC did a study and from that, they claimed the rate was 0.001%, or...

Kayleigh McEnany came under attack by her former boss on Truth Social last night. His very thin skin was pierced by the former White House press secretary, now a Fox News host and contributor. Kayleigh quoted a poll number Trump disagreed with and he went full force against her on his social media platform. (snip) Kayleigh was hired by Trump to replace Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I really liked Sarah in the job, too. Both women had the ability to stand firm against the daily attacks by the press corps and defend Trump. They didn’t back down when the dialogue heated...

"...this sounds pretty whiny for a first-look official campaign ad. The script for it amplifies that quality, as it sounds as though Trump wrote it himself. “Struggling big-time,” “failing so bad,” “Trump’s support was so powerful,” and so on. It’s comic-book language for a comic-book grudge. Everything about this ad is about Trump’s personal affront, and nothing — not a single word — is about the issues of the day, policies Trump wants to implement, or even voters themselves. It’s sixty seconds of personal butt-hurt, broadcast nationally."

Cedars Sinai hospital dropped an atomic bomb of truth on us: 30% more young people are dying from heart attacks than before the pandemic.The rise in heart attacks is so striking because the demographic it has hit is shocking: people from 25-44 years old. People in this age group are not generally known for dropping like flies from heart disease.CBS News admits heart attack deaths in younger folks (age 25-44) are 30% higher than average over the past two years blaming on anti-maskers and the unvaxxed. 👉🤡 pic.twitter.com/nPnIj0cpgL— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) February 15, 2023What’s to account...

Last night I got to thinking about how many posts I’ve written for Hot Air. I’ve looked at the total before but it never sticks in my mind. Big numbers seldom do. My guess was 15,000. The reality: 36,590. That’s six per day, every day. For 16 years. My takes may be terrible but I make it up on volume. This post, number 36,591, will be the last. I’m the only member left from the team that launched this site in 2006. It’s always been owned by others, first by Michelle Malkin and then by Salem Communications, but when you’re...

Allahpundit @allahpundit Personal news: My last day at Hot Air will be Friday, September 2 9:56 AM · Aug 3, 2022·Tweetbot for Mac

Former Vice President Al Gore said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the January 6 House Select Committee was having a significant impact on public opinion. Anchor Jonathan Karl asked, “What’s your reaction been watching these hearings, and what kind of impact do you think they’re going have?” Gore said, “I’d like to say that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney and every single member of that committee have performed an amazing service to our democracy. I think these hearings have been the most persuasive and effective since the Watergate hearings so long ago. And I think we’re seeing a huge...

Has land for peace ever worked — even lately? We’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s look at a critical moment in the Russian offensive in Donbas. If Putin wants to force a face-saving settlement, he needs to win a decisive battle to secure an area that he, um, largely controlled by proxy before the invasion. Reuters casts the ongoing battle on the Siverskiy Donets river as Putin’s last, best hope to get out with some claim of victory:The decisive battles of the war’s latest phase are still raging further south, where Moscow is attempting to seize...

Let the record show that Russia may see cutting off its future revenues as a lesser price to pay than denting Vladimir Putin’s ego. And that could very well be a rational calculation, given the tremendously destabilizing impact that a humiliation in Ukraine would likely produce. However, the humiliations stacking up on the other side of the equation carry a cost too, sometimes literally : Russia will cut natural gas supplies to Finland on Saturday, according to Finland’s state energy provider, the latest salvo in a growing confrontation between the two countries over the war in Ukraine. Finland this week...