Free Republic

"How do we squash the prejudice against female presidential nominees, which has always been with us, but became even worse after Kamala Harris got whomped by Donald Trump?" Asks Gail Collins in a column with a title that asks a different question, "Where, oh Where, Will the First Female President Come From?"Maybe it would be better to ask this other question, my question: When will we ever get to evaluate a female presidential candidate as just another presidential candidate? We've been nudged too many times to pick the woman because she is a woman. It makes people wary. I mean,...

Remember back in 2022 when Rep. Ilhan Omar was speaking to a gathering of CAIR and referred to 9/11 as the day that "some people did something"? Now, a woman whom New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, whose father's second cousin was afraid to wear a hijab on the subway because of that something, has endorsed for the New York State Assembly a woman who describes 9/11 as "a terror attack that a couple people did." We wonder 1) how old she was on September 11, 2001, and 2) what university she graduated from, because she hits all the talking...

"Danny argues that the truth about the Ukraine–Russia war can no longer be concealed: Ukraine is heading toward a strategic and battlefield defeat, a reality now acknowledged even by strongly pro-Ukraine voices like journalist Julian Röpcke. According to the commentary: Western and Ukrainian leaders have long misrepresented battlefield conditions, offering “PR” optimism while ignoring deteriorating realities. Russia prioritized destroying Ukraine’s armed forces over capturing territory, but is now accelerating territorial gains as Ukrainian capacity collapses. Ukrainian reports and government messaging continue to “sugarcoat” the situation, preventing honest assessment and prolonging unnecessary losses. Russia maintains overwhelming advantages in drones, glide bombs,...

They’re preparing for a Mamdani administration lox, stock and barrel. Jewish New Yorkers are arming themselves before an anti-Israel “mayor who despises us” takes the helm of New York City, several told The Post this week. They want to “have a say in our protection and not have to rely on others,” one said. The morning after mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory, firearms instructors and gun shop owners were flooded with urgent pleas. “It’s getting busy because of him,” said longtime gun safety instructor Lance Dashefsky. … “I always ask people in class why they want a gun,” said Dashefsky. “And...

A look at the Last Stop on a Hunting Bullet’s Journey We ask an awful lot of our bullets, especially those of us who rely on them for self defense or for hunting. We need the bullet to be accurate, we ask it to feed properly from a variety of magazine types, and finally, we want our bullet to perform perfectly once it makes contact with our intended target. The terminal phase of the bullet – that which begins upon impact with the target and ends upon cessation of forward movement or once it exits the target – is...

On March 3rd through March 6th 2016, the Republican presidential primary was at the precipice of a key inflection point (Super Tuesday) when a large group of political leadership, tech titans, bankers and political influence agents assembled at the AEI summit in Sea Island, Georgia. (snip) In 2016 the agenda of the group, though they gently denied it at the time, was to figure out a way to remove the disruption Donald Trump represented from the business model of DC politics. The Sea Island confab discussed how to stop him, or at the very least manage the potential damage he...

Chuck Schumer handed his head on a plate to President Trump last night as he surrendered on shutting down the government. After 40 days of slithering to the microphone each day with a new rant to an increasingly bored media about our favorite president, Chuck realized the futility of shutting down the government because all he did was anger the Democrat Party’s key constituent—welfare recipients—and leave helpless airline passengers stranded in city after city. Trump meanwhile went about his life as usual, savoring every minute of his final presidency. He went to Asia and signed historic peace and trade agreements....

How do I begin to cover today’s latest development: President Trump, having imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods—tariffs that reached a staggering 145%—is now signaling a substantial reduction. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has acknowledged these tariffs are "unsustainable," hinting at a likely de-escalation in the trade war with China. Yet, in a twist of political theater, this retreat is being celebrated by supporters as a strategic masterstroke. The same voices that once championed the tariffs as a bold stand against China now laud their rollback as a savvy move, all without a hint of irony.​ I say this a lot,...

Much like the entirety of this year, social media timelines were flooded with “horrifying” videos of Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting illegal aliens, with liberal users often not providing the full facts of what was actually happening with the arrests. The first case that caused high levels of outrage was that of a Colombian illegal immigrant who was caught and released at the southern border by the Biden administration in 2023. Videos started circulating of federal agents rushing into a daycare and arresting the woman, who was trying to resist apprehension. The liberal narrative was...

VIDEOThe mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, pleaded with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for help in his fight against the cartel which was extorting and killing people in his area. She denied him such help and on the important Mexican holiday of El Dia De Los Muertos he was brutally assassinated by the cartel in front of his family and his fellow citizens. In response, President Sheinbaum has declared herself completely helpless to fight the cartels. Really? Perhaps she should have informed the people of Mexico about her self-declared incompetence last year BEFORE she became President.

William F. Buckley Jr. once quipped that he would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. New York City is about to be governed by the Columbia University student body. A city that used to think of itself as grown up has just elected a mayor who seems the very embodiment of the American college student: uninformed, entitled and self-important, enjoying a regal quality of life that depends parasitically upon a civilization about which he knows nothing, yet for which he has nothing but scorn. American college students regularly...

ZOHRAN Mamdani has won the mayorship of New York City, the most valuable metropolitan area in the world accounting for 4 per cent of American GDP, even though he promises socialism. In his acceptance speech, he thanked voters for ‘a mandate for change’ and ‘a new kind of politics’. On one hand, Mamdani has benefited from a leftist shift beyond NYC. Leftists won most of the elections on Tuesday. (These elections are asynchronous with midterm and general elections, as chosen by the states.) This shift is not necessarily personal. The nationally governing party is normally punished in local elections, despite...

The success of this bullying, foul-mouthed ‘commentator’ speaks to a sickness on the contemporary American left.Until about four days ago, I was blissfully unaware of the existence of one Jennifer Welch – a former reality-TV personality turned Democratic propagandist for the podcast age.I now look back on my pre-Welch days as something like the Garden of Eden, a place I wish I could return to. I spend a lot of time keeping tabs on libtard excess, but this Welch lady really takes the biscuit.It is hard to shake the suspicion that Welch has been designed in a progressive laboratory. Her...

And deserves to get it good and hard.Last night was the (well, not mid-term elections — those are next year — “quarter-term” elections?) and the areas that thought that Kamala Harris was a damned fine pick for POTUS last cycle stayed Blue. That should not have been a big surprise to anyone with a licence to adult..In Newt Yack City, a CAIR1-funded communist Democratic Socialist is now mayor.Whee. As long-time readers of my little scribblings have probably already figured out, I doubt that Mamdani will be as bad as his detractors say; but I damned sure don’t think he’s going...

In the four minute video posted below, the housing conditions at a three bedroom apartment at a public housing project in the Bronx in New York City are absolutely horrible.There are rats, roaches, and black mold.There are leaks in every room.And every time the tenant calls maintenance to ask for repairs, the government employees always make up some bogus excuse for why they can’t fix anything.And why should the government employees fix anything, when they know they can’t get fired?And as all of this is going on, the federal government is giving them $30 million per week to make these...

Another election day, and I have to sit here for 16 hours and check-in nothing but dem voters in this RED county. You wonder why we lose? THIS IS THE NUMBER ONE REASON!!

When Holocaust scholars accuse Jews of becoming Nazis, moral clarity collapses into performance guilt.Every few months, another academic or journalist decides that the best way to honor Holocaust memory is to accuse Israel of repeating it. The latest comes from The New York Times, where Professor Marianne Hirsch, interviewed by Masha Gessen, claims we need to “rethink how we think about the Holocaust.” It’s a long conversation—ostensibly about pedagogy and post-memory—but it eventually lands in the same familiar place: Holocaust memory, they say, has been “misused” to justify Israeli actions in Gaza, while Israel itself now stands accused of committing...

Dear FRiends, To honor Jim, I’m about to donate beyond my monthly donation to FR, in lieu of flowers. Please join me if you’re able. It would be nice it if we could end a FReepathon early for a change. God bless you, JimRob, and your family. Thank you for all you have done for us.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune earlier this week,Tuesday’s Minneapolis election will be a battle among competing factions of Democrats.Yes, the city is ruled by Democrats, but the politics are largely split between moderates and a more progressive wing, anchored by a growing faction of democratic socialists like Sen. Omar Fateh, a candidate for mayor. As I’ve framed the contest: it’s a competition between gradually and suddenly. Frey, the two-term incumbent, represents the moderate wing, opting for a continued long and slow decline. Fateh offers the “suddenly” option of immediate collapse and utter devastation. And by “utter devastation,” I mean that...

Michelle Obama really wants you to know she's a victim. That's been the theme for her over the last several years, whether it be during interviews or on her incredibly grating podcast. Most recently, speaking to ABC News "journalist" Gayle King, who is always chosen for these softball sessions for a reason, the former First Lady decried her time in the White House, claiming she and her family were given a "lack of grace" that other presidential families received. KING: "We were all too aware that as the first black couple, we couldn't afford any mistakes." And you also say...