Free Republic

As the Pentagon and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency set their sights on climate-related programs at the Defense Department, officials and experts are warning that slashing them could put US troops and military operations at risk, both in the near and long term. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior Pentagon officials have pointed to climate programs as a prime example of wasteful spending in the military. Hegseth told reporters in Germany in February that the Pentagon is “not in the business of climate change.” Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Salesses also made it clear that funding would...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five former secretaries of defense are calling on Congress to hold immediate hearings on President Donald Trump’s recent firings of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several other senior military leaders, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. The five men — who represented Republican and Democratic administrations over the past three decades — said the dismissals were alarming, raised “troubling questions about the administration’s desire to politicize the military” and removed legal constraints on the president’s power. Late last week, Trump fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of...

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is one of the few plants in the United States to manufacture 155mm artillery shells, according to AP News. These shells, used in howitzer systems that strike targets up to 20 miles away, have been used by Ukrainian forces in the war against Russia. Zelensky’s decision to visit the ammunition plant came under fishy circumstances. Sept. 22, 2024, marked 44 days before the U.S. presidential election. The state of Pennsylvania is seen as a swing state, going to Donald Trump in the...

The U.S. must increase defense spending to Cold War levels if it expects to contend with international threats posed by a malign alliance of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea that could lead to a global war, according to a commission appointed by Congress. On Wednesday, former California Rep. Jane Harman and Ambassador Eric Edelman, the chair and vice chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, told lawmakers that the U.S. is facing its most severe threats in decades. The U.S. last fought a global conflict in World War II nearly 80 years ago and isn’t prepared for...

@RepThomasMassie Unfortunately, this is not April fools. Johnson, Schumer & the deep state are writing the Ukraine bill. Then Johnson will suspend rules to pass it. “We’re putting that product together & we’ll be moving it right after the district work period,” -Johnson.

Senate Republicans eager to ram Ukraine funding through the upper chamber are just as eager to dismiss their voters as dimwitted and “shortsighted.” “Our base cannot possibly know what’s at stake at the level that any well-briefed U.S. senator should know about what’s at stake if Putin wins,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, according to Punchbowl News Monday. Senate lawmakers spent the weekend advancing another $61 billion to Kyiv following last week’s embarrassing rejection of a bipartisan compromise bill that threatened to codify the invasion on the southern border. The more than $95 billion foreign spending package headed for...

America last! The U.S. Senate has cast a contentious vote, advancing a massive $95 billion foreign aid package that supports Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan, but notably omits any provisions for bolstering U.S. border infrastructure. In a 67-32 cloture vote, the Senate crossed party lines, with several RINO senators joining Democrats to move the foreign aid bill forward. Republicans who joined Democrats in voting in favor include: Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Bill Cassidy (R-LA) Roger Wicker (R-MS) Todd Young (R-IN) Susan Collins (R-ME) Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) John Kennedy (R-LA) John Thune (R-SD) Dan Sullivan (R-AK) Mitt Romney...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s top aides bluntly told lawmakers in a private meeting on Wednesday that if Congress fails to authorize additional military aid for Ukraine in the coming days, Russia could win the war in a matter of weeks — months at best, according to two people familiar with the meeting.National security adviser Jake Sullivan and the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the lawmakers that Ukraine will run out of certain air defense and artillery capabilities in the coming weeks, according to the people familiar with the meeting.The grim assessment, which one White House official described...

During last Thursday’s Congressional hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Democratic members of Congress insisted that censorship efforts of groups like the Cyber Threat Intelligence League (CTIL), the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), and the Virality Project (VP) were benign and not a violation of the First Amendment. “It's not the First Amendment!” said Rep. Dan Goldman, “It's the [social media platforms’] Terms of Service.... And they are flagging it for the social media companies to make their own decisions. That is not the First Amendment. That is the Terms of Service.” But the CTIL Files, a trove of...

A plane carrying Americans was forced to land in Iran by the Iranian Air Force. It was allowed to leave early Saturday. It isn't known if all are still aboard. Link only.(Excerpt) "A charter airplane carrying military contractors, including Americans, took off early Saturday from Iran, hours after its pilots were ordered to land because the flight plan was out of date, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said."

Shell companies in Cayman Islands allow KBR to avoid Medicare, Social Security deductions CAYMAN ISLANDS - Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded...

It doesn't take long to find errors of fact and distortions in The Virginian Pilot. Just read any of the "filler" between the ads that this bird cage liner calls "news stories." For example, this front page story House vote would let U.S. prosecute security contractors runs over a picture of what appears to be some kind of an armed gang, shirts hanging out, sandals and sneakers on their feet, and an assortment of ancient weapons most of which appear to be of Soviet make. This may be a picture of the armed gang guarding the NY Times building in...

PHOENIX - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested workers employed by Aramark and Aire Filter Products.Both companies are subcontractors at Boeing's Phoenix-area helicopter systems plant.The plant makes aircraft for the U.S. military.The feds say the targeted suspects are foreign nationals who were identified through the investigation because their immigration status makes it unlawful for them to work in the U.S.As workers of the subcontractors, they performed janitorial and food service work.Agents say the unauthorized contract workers used fraudulent Social Security numbers and counterfeit Alien Registration cards to obtain jobs at the plant.Authorities fear the workers having access to sensitive...