Free Republic

What happens when someone dissents from the leftist establishment narrative in a way that is so compelling and convincing that the continued wide acceptance of that narrative is imperiled? What happens is that the leftist media establishment deploys its strongest rhetorical weapons against the offender, hoping to destroy or at least cripple the dissident before he or she is able to amass a significant following, or to dishearten and disperse that following if it already exists. This is why the April 2026 issue of Tablet magazine contains a massive article, over 6,000 words long, damning with faint praise the pioneering...

Iran lost its own mines. Swalwell lost control of an exploding narrative. The WSJ lost the real cause of our health crisis. A terrific judicial appointment should delight MAHA. And more. Good morning, C&C, it’s Saturday! Your weekend edition roundup includes: how Iran’s mines are the most convenient excuse since the dog ate the homework — and why Trump is quietly delighted about it; the spectacular self-destruction of Eric Swalwell, who ran his entire campaign on protecting women and now faces four accusers, a surfaced NDA he said never existed, and a Democratic Party that just handed him his hat;...

The front page of today’s New York Times features a big article clearly intended to get the readers riled up about the latest environmental horror that must be stopped. The headline is “The Illegal Airstrips Bringing Toxic Mining to Brazil’s Indigenous Land.” Subheadline: “The Times identified hundreds of airstrips that bring criminal mining operations to the most remote corners of the Amazon.” Wow, this is bad. The airstrips are “illegal.” The mining is “toxic,” and not only toxic but also “criminal.” And it’s all happening in the most pristine place left in the whole world, the “remote corners of the...

The story behind the New York Times’ 1903 claim that human flight was between one and ten million years away is even worse than it looks. Once you understand the backstory, you realize that the New York Times story is not really about flight at all but about how elites and credentialed “experts” mistake their own failures for the boundaries of possibility. The New York Times did not dismiss the possibility of powered flight at random. There was a very specific reason behind it. At the time, America’s most prominent scientific authority, Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley, had been showered with...

Did The New York Times publish a headline saying "A North American Treaty Organization Without America?" Yes, that's true: The mistake appeared in the April 3, 2026, print edition of the paper. Instead of saying "North American Treaty Organization," it should have said "North Atlantic Treaty Organization." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @sissenberg account on X on April 3, 2026. It read: " Does the @nytimes know what NATO stands for?" snip

A New York Times headline that laughably mischaracterized NATO as “A North American Treaty Organization” drew widespread scorn on Friday. The glaring mangling of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s name quickly spread across X. Within minutes, a post pointing out the egregious error drew a wave of ridicule, disbelief and anger — much of it aimed not just at the mistake itself, but at what users framed as broader failures in mainstream media.

Demand Justice, a liberal organization, has mounted robust efforts to block President Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court in the past, but never before a vacancy existed. For now, none of the nine Supreme Court justices have announced plans to retire, and Mr. Trump has no looming opportunity to keep stocking the court with younger conservative justices. That isn’t stopping Demand Justice from preparing a multimillion-dollar effort to oppose potential Trump Supreme Court appointees before they happen — with a warning that Mr. Trump could be replacing two justices this year. The preparations come at a moment when Democrats are...

The New York Times just confirmed what we've long suspected: ActBlue knowingly let in fraudulent foreign donations to help Democrats win. Yet another example of the left's embrace of fraud. Everyone involved must face the full weight of the law.

Most Americans probably don’t look back at March 2012 — if they remember it at all — and think of terrifyingly high gas prices. In the month when “The Hunger Games” ruled the box office and President Barack Obama was on his way to a comfortable re-election, the price of Brent crude closed the month around $123 a barrel. That would be about $175 a barrel in today’s dollars. As of Tuesday, despite Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its attacks on its neighbors’ energy facilities, it’s hovering around $100, slightly higher than the average inflation-adjusted price...

President Trump asserted on Thursday that he had no plans to commit ground forces to the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, even though he has acknowledged he is contemplating moves that could drag the military into land combat operations. Mr. Trump’s comments still left some room for him to reverse course. “I’m not putting troops anywhere,″ Mr. Trump told a reporter who asked about using ground troops. “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” The president has spent several days alternating between threats to escalate strikes on Iran — which at times he has insisted are an “operation” or an...

The Pentagon has asked for $200 billion in funding for the war in Iran... The request has been sent to the White House, the military official said, which will review it before any request for funds is formally submitted to Congress. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal. The request was reported earlier by The Washington Post. “Obviously, it takes money to kill bad guys,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said when asked about the request during a news conference on Thursday, adding: “As far as the $200 billion, I think that number could move.” On Capitol...

Disturbing details about Cesar Chavez’s creepy California lair are emerging where the disgraced union titan allegedly raped girls and women while living like a king. Chavez has been accused of sexually abusing multiple young girls and women, according to a shocking investigation from the New York Times. Multiple women, two of whom said they were children, detailed accounts of when Chavez allegedly began sexually abusing them. The allegations have surfaced more than thirty years since the co-founder of the United Farm Workers labor union died in 1993. Ana Murguia claimed the abuse started when she was just 13, while Debra...

California Democratic leaders have released statements attempting to distance themselves from pro-labor union activist Cesar Chavez in the wake of "heartbreaking" allegations against him. On Wednesday, the New York Times published a bombshell report revealing accusations that Chavez sexually abused several women, including fellow labor activist Dolores Huerta, prior to his death in 1993. In response to the article, several California elected officials have released statements condemning the actions and expressing support for the victims. "These are heartbreaking, horrific accounts of abuse. I stand with the survivors, commend them for their bravery in sharing their stories, and condemn the abhorrent...

Someone should do a wellness check on The New York Times. Looks like its journos read the portents wrong — AGAIN — on another one of its apocalyptic prognostications on the economic consequences of President Donald Trump taking out the Islamist regime in Iran. Times business reporter Emmett Lindner nonsensically tried to dig up the corpse of the 1970s oil price shock following the Yom Kippur War as a comparative case study to what is transpiring around the Persian Gulf as Israel and the U.S. decimate Iran’s war machine. “Echoes of the ’70s in What’s Now the Largest Oil Shock...

In 1991, American officials flew to Israel to keep the country from retaliating against Scud missile attacks and joining the Gulf War. In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned it would be “in Israel’s overwhelming best interests not to get involved” in the looming invasion of Iraq. In 2026, the United States went to war alongside Israel. “It’s the first time,” said Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, “that Israel is going to war together with a superpower.” The United States has been the Jewish state’s most important backer for decades, providing it with weaponry and working...

Russia has a question for the European countries that have shunned its energy exports: Do you miss us now? The Kremlin is enjoying a sudden resurgence of its importance as a global supplier of oil and gas, as the conflict in Iran disrupts energy production and shipment across the Middle East and sends global energy prices soaring. “Now other markets are opening up, and perhaps it’s more advantageous for us to stop supplying the European market right now,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday to a state television reporter, Pavel Zarubin, who chronicles the Russian leader. “We are seeing an increase...

The California governor made the remarks at an event to promote his new memoir, 'Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.'California Governor Gavin Newsom compared Israel to an “apartheid state” and questioned future U.S. military support for the country. Speaking on stage at an event to promote his new memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, Newsom, who is widely expected to enter the 2028 presidential race, was asked by Pod Save America host Jon Favreau about the U.S.-Israel relationship and whether it should be reconsidered. “It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in...

For decades, Iran managed to bluff American presidents. It deterred attacks from a superpower and carried out proxy campaigns against its neighbors and Israel. Our strikes on Iran on Saturday are evidence that this long-term strategy of negotiating in bad faith is bankrupt. The military campaign underway is the direct result of Iranian leaders’ foot-dragging, obfuscation and delay tactics. This time, they misjudged the president. The path to today began in 2020, when President Trump made the decision to strike then Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, an Iranian military leader who masterminded attacks against American people and facilities in the Middle...

The combined political and liberal media counteroffensive against President Trump was underway within hours of the Iran strike. As socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) launched a frontal assault on Trump’s decision — declaring the military action “absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment” — the New York Times provided covering fire, unleashing a barrage of skepticism about the justification for the strikes. [snip] With American forces engaged overseas, the political and media barrage began at home within hours — unrestrained even as service members moved into harm’s way.Get the rest of the story here.

Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Afghanistan’s two largest cities on Friday, including the capital, Kabul, according to officials from both nations, escalating months of tension and border skirmishes into an open conflict. Beyond Kabul, home to six million people, the strikes hit the southern city of Kandahar — where the Taliban’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, lives — and the border province of Paktia, according to Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban government. Pakistan launched the strikes hours after Afghan troops had attacked Pakistani border positions, according to Afghan and Pakistani officials. The Afghan attacks were described as retaliation...