Free Republic

The civilian board that oversees America's spy agencies will probe whether political bias kept intelligence analysts from sharing with Congress and President Donald Trump evidence that China meddled in elections dating to 2020, its chairman says after an explosive report by Just the News. "We ran a decade-long investigation in the Congress into China, and so this new bombshell that you just dropped is very concerning to me, and it should be to the Congress," President's Intelligence Advisory Board Chairman Devin Nunes told the Just the News, No Noise television show. "This information was likely around in 2019, probably in...

As New York approaches the Green Energy Cliff, developments are starting to come more quickly. When last I addressed the subject on March 6, there had just been “leaked” a three-page memo from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to the Governor’s office, revealing that implementation of what New York calls its “cap and invest” program — actually, an artificial scarcity program intentionally designed to drive prices up and impoverish the people — would cost every New York household thousands of dollars in increased energy costs. (I put the word “leaked” in quotes because most knowledgeable...

Overconfidence despite clear incompetence was evident in both Obama and Mamdani. There is a cognitive bias called the Dunning–Kruger effect, which -- in my opinion -- would be better called the Obama-Mamdani effect today. Dunning-Kruger describes a delusional mindset where “People with low knowledge or skill in an area tend to overestimate how competent they are.” In biblical terms, this kind of hubris is defined by Paul in Romans 12:3 as one “...think[ing] more highly of oneself than one ought.” That Scripture verse captures the essence of two popular, similar politicians who, despite having little knowledge or skill, have convinced...

Seventeen years ago, then-President Barack Hussein Obama’s Department of Justice launched a witch hunt against four Connecticut police officers who’d been rooting out illegal alien fraud. The four East Haven Police Department officers — Jason Zullo, John Miller, David Cari, and Dennis Spaulding — “were branded as criminals, their lives and families torn apart,” according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF). But they weren’t criminals — they were “committed, decorated professionals engaged in the unglamorous work of enforcing the law in a community plagued by fraudulent vehicle registrations, gang activity, and illegal enterprises.” Years later, Spaulding is now...

For 15 years the FBI was engaged in a landmark investigation into the largest Islamic-based charity in the United States, called The Holy Land Foundation. The organization was operating as a front for Muslim terror groups, funneling cash from western countries to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, until they were finally put on trial in 2008. Convicted leaders were known as the “Holy Land Five,” and included Shukri Abu Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mohammad El-Mezain. Among the documents seized from these individuals during the investigation was a strategic paper drafted by senior Muslim Brotherhood operative...

One of the many obnoxious characteristics of present-day liberal elitists that makes them so detestable is their deep superiority complex, their Sophomania, their delusional belief that they are intellectually---as well as morally---superior to everyone else, particularly conservatives whom they see as Neanderthals. They truly believe they have a monopoly on intelligence and morality. Camille Paglia put it well: “Many highly educated, upper-middle-class Democrats regard themselves as exemplars of ‘compassion’ (which they have elevated into a supreme political principle) yet they routinely assail Trump voters as ignorant, callous hate-mongers.” This smug Sopjomania of theirs, combined with their self-righteous stance, is something...

One often hears Democrat politicians decrying the lack of common civility abroad in the land these days. In so doing, they generally blame Normal Americans—largely but not exclusively Republicans—for that failing. But how often do we see the Normal American owners or managers of restaurants or other public accommodations, kick Democrat politicians or functionaries out of their establishments because their presence “makes them feel unsafe” or might be “perceived as a lack of support for the community that makes up the majority of our team.” I can’t recall any instance of that happening, ever. That’s not surprising. Normal Americans aren’t...

Word is that things are a little rough down in Cuba right now. In my post of February 23, I reported that Cuba had become the first nation in the world to achieve the climate activists’ Holy Grail of “Net Zero” carbon emissions. I had looked around for news of the big celebration of Cuba’s achievement, but I couldn’t find any mention of it. If I had understood things correctly — and I think I had — Net Zero was supposed to deliver abundant and much cheaper electricity from the free wind and sun, lowering everybody’s energy costs, creating jobs,...

Democrats have kept the Department of Homeland Security shuttered since mid-February because they were outraged that two Americans were killed by ICE agents while interfering with their work. Since then, terrorists have claimed four American lives – a number that could have been significantly higher had fortune not prevailed. So, where are the protests over these deaths? “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling — and unacceptable in any American city,” is how Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer justified his party’s decision to force the DHS closure. Democrats are insisting on a raft of ICE “reforms,” but their goal is simply...

There is an interesting article in the Telegraph by a psychotherapist called Jonathan Alpert, called ‘There’s a reason the Left seems more psychologically distressed than the Right’ (you can read it here). This is how he opens: In my clinical practice, one pattern has become increasingly difficult to ignore. Among a subset of patients on the political Left, hostility toward political opponents goes beyond dislike or even hatred. It sometimes takes the form of moralised fantasies about an opponent’s death, disappointment that Donald Trump’s shooter did not have better aim, or statements that certain public figures ‘deserve’ to be...

The contrast between the grateful immigrants who once embraced America and the resentful newcomers who scorn it reveals how radically—and dangerously—the nation’s immigration ethos has changed. The Traditional ImmigrantSilicon Valley was energized by legal immigrants from all over the world who founded eBay, Google, Nvidia, SpaceX, Stripe, Sun Microsystems, Tesla, Yahoo, and a host of others. The Greek American Elia Kazan’s 1963 film America, America is a fictional account based on the Herculean struggle of the director’s uncle to immigrate to the United States from an impoverished and hostile Turkish Anatolia. The film summed up Americans’ traditional view of immigrants:...

n ever-increasing number of despondent Westerners are taking to social media to state things like, “I took a walk today. I don’t recognize my town anymore.” Or, “Nothing is like I remember it from my youth.” Or, I feel like a stranger in my own country.” Many of us have a longing for yesteryear. There are multiple reasons for this, but every one of them is either directly or indirectly caused by Democrats and their disdain for the United States and traditional Americans. Period. Their policies, such as they are, are soft on crime and hard on law-abiding citizens and...

Kathy Hochul has a big problem: she and Mamdani have big spending plans, but the tax base of New York is eroding because high-net-worth individuals are leaving the state for greener pastures. Her solution? Ask them to come back. Be patriotic. Take one for the team. No, really. This is how well Democrats understand economics. With the war raging in the Persian Gulf, it's easy to let a host of other stories fall to the wayside. But there are plenty of them still out there that deserve attention. I have a bunch of stuff about crime, immigration, elections (did you...

D Democrats excel at warping the English language, making it say things it was never intended to say. There is “American gun culture,” which amounts to our unalienable, express Second Amendment rights. There are “assault weapons,” a term that exists nowhere in firearm nomenclature, but which in Virginia includes break action, single shot .410 shotguns. And there is “Ultra MAGA,” which is Normal Americans who apparently really want America to be great, prosperous and secure—the horror. And most of all, there are the phobias. Dictionary.com defines phobia thus: 1. an intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, situation,...

The Spanish PM’s shift to the left could foreshadow the path that socialism—or the social-democratic Left—across the West will follow, or is already following. Last Sunday, regional elections were held in Spain, though they were experienced everywhere through a national lens. The People’s Party (PP) won the elections in Castile and León but failed to reach an absolute majority, meaning it will need VOX, the party led by Santiago Abascal, in order to govern the region. Both parties gained seats, and VOX, with 19% of the vote, achieved the highest share in its history in any election. The bad news...

Burning the Canadian flag is legal. Completely legal. A planned law that would’ve mandated the flying of the Ontario flag at all provincial buildings and banned the desecration of the Canadian flag has been scuttled by the Ford government, Global News has learned, after members of the Progressive Conservative caucus questioned the necessity of the bill. Multiple sources told Global News the proposal, spearheaded as part of a patriotism push by Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Graham McGregor, would have potentially violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and may have faced court challenges. But the Iranian flag...

DDemocrats used to be on the side of victims, but not so much anymore. Women were among their most important victims, suffering under the Republican “war on women.” In the past, they reflexively defended rape victims, accusing anyone of not wanting to immediately lynch accused rapists of “blaming the victim.” But that was before they decided vicious illegal alien criminals were higher on the victimization ladder than American women. Now, pretty much any Democrat favored victim group—trans, drag queens, all manner of domestic criminals, criminal Democrat congressmen, Jihadists—takes precedence over women—and Jews. We no longer hear about the Republican “war...

In Cuba, the locals are in absolute revolt against a 67-year communist tyranny and all its economic failures. Expectations -- a critical element in igniting a revolution -- are rising, and locals are no longer afraid of the state. They are shouting 'libertad' in their hundreds of thousands: Stop romanticizing socialism. None of that aid will get to the Cuban people. The dictatorship steals it and sells it to them in dollars, currency which they don't get paid. What the Cuban people need is freedom. Cuba will be free soon thanks to Donald Trump. Clock is ticking.… pic.twitter.com/FfaVkuqB4R — Libertad...

In New York’s large suite of self-destructive public policies, it’s hard to choose which one is the very worst. But an excellent candidate is the regime for regulation of residential rents, mostly going by the name of Rent Stabilization. Because of rent regulation, New York’s rental housing stock is older, more outdated, and less well-maintained than the housing of any other American city. If you got yourself into one of the regulated apartments a few decades ago, you likely enjoy a significant bargain on your monthly rent versus comparable space, to go along with your 30- or 40-year old kitchen...

The Democrats have been making desperate arguments against voter ID legislation, including claims that it will disenfranchise married women due to their name change. Naturally, they’ve left out the part about Barack Obama launching his political career by using the name change of a married woman in his successful attempt to have all his opponents kicked off the ballot and run unopposed. The SAVE Act, which has been passed by the House and is heavily supported by the public but is stalled in the Republican Senate, simply “requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote,...