Free Republic

Iran does not need to secure the Strait of Hormuz. It only needs to make sure that no one else can, either. Despite the sorry condition of its naval forces,.. Iran still maintains selective control of the Strait of Hormuz—resulting in 80 to 90 percent of the traffic being halted. How? Not through naval dominance, but rather through asymmetric disruption, which Iran uses to make travel through the Strait too dangerous to risk. Iran Doesn’t Need to Close the Strait to Cut Off Shipping Iran’s strategy is not to implement a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, it...

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of the island of Qeshm, separated from the Iranian mainland by the Clarence Strait, on December 10, 2023. Nicolas Economou/Reuters With thousands of US ground troops reportedly on the way to the Middle East, speculation is mounting that they may be assigned to take Iran’s Kharg Island, a key fuel hub in the northern Persian Gulf which handles 90% of Tehran’s oil exports. But Kharg is just one of dozens of Iranian islands in the gulf, and others may be more important to securing the safe passage of ships – and naval vessels –...

The islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb in the Persian Gulf hold the key to the global economy's most vital chokepoint: the Strait of Hormuz..In the current landscape of the West Asia conflict, the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb have transformed from sleepy patches of sand into what military analysts call “unsinkable aircraft carriers". While the world watches the missile exchanges between major powers, these three tiny landmasses in the Persian Gulf hold the key to the global economy’s most vital chokepoint: the Strait of Hormuz.The story of how these islands became part...

THE SUN RISES AGAIN over a fractured camp. Confusion everywhere. Attacks flow from outside the MAGA movement and from within it. An old ally, whether feigned or real, turns his fire on the Don. Alex Jones, once a loud voice for the cause, now broke down in tears on his broadcast and urged his listeners to cut bait on Trump. He spoke of Trump’s failing health, swollen ankles, a mind that babbles, and the need for intervention. Trump is gone, he said. Be sad about it. Mobilize against the Democrats instead. Like an ocean tide, Jones has historically moved towards...

A proposal out of Texas to study whether some New Mexico counties could potentially join the state of Texas has triggered a surprisingly emotional response from New Mexico’s top Democratic leaders — and exposed a political nerve that Santa Fe clearly did not want touched. Earlier this week, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows directed a Texas legislative committee to study the possibility of adding “one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico” to the state of Texas. The committee has been instructed to study the constitutional, legal, fiscal, and economic feasibility of such a move and outline what steps would...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is facing a full-blown revolt from within his own party after floating a plan that critics say would quietly sabotage one of the most important election integrity bills in years. Conservative heavyweights Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna are sounding the alarm, accusing Senate leadership of trying to pull a fast one on the American people by pretending the SAVE America Act can pass through budget reconciliation. Their message is simple: it can’t — and they know it. Luna went nuclear, blasting the maneuver as a deliberate dodge to avoid forcing senators to...

Naomi Seibt from Germany has filled for political asylum because the German government is monitoring her text messages, email and Youtube channel.

Diplomacy is an instrument of strategy that great powers use to survive and gain an advantage in competition with other powerful states. Excellence in diplomacy is a vital prerequisite to the success and endurance of great powers. Diplomatic skills atrophied in the United States after the end of the Cold War, as we came to rely on military technology and economic sanctions as the main tools of our foreign policy. But now we are entering a dangerous age in which great powers are competing for the things they have competed over from the beginning of time: territory, resources, influence, and...

Chuck Collins figures he won life's lottery by inheriting vast sums of money through his great-grandfather Oscar Mayer's processed meat company. Rather than fight to protect every dime, Collins helped push to hike taxes on the ultrarich like himself. He was successful in helping implement a higher tax in Massachusetts on income over $1 million, and the idea took hold in a handful of other blue states, including California, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey. Lawmakers in the state of Washington, which doesn't have an income tax, could send the governor this week a measure that would impose one on million-dollar...

President Trump signaled on Wednesday that he plans to tap into the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to bring down rising gas prices. “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again, but right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down,” Trump said during an interview with Local 12 in Kentucky. The president shrugged off rising gas prices as a “matter of war” earlier in the day and expressed confidence the market would settle soon. I figured we’d be hit a little bit. We were hit less than I thought...

In the United States — and the civilizational “West” more broadly — we are a society divided by slogans, propaganda, and social media memes. It is an unfortunate part of our present reality that we no longer engage in honest “public debate.” We haven’t done so for a very long time. The Founding Fathers wrote essays and pamphlets and delivered hours-long speeches during which they articulated the reasons for their beliefs. We get pink-hatted people — who may or may not identify as women — “shouting their abortions.” We get automatons screaming, “Black lives matter,” “Free Palestine,” “Trump is Hitler,”...

Marjorie Taylor Greene: "All of you MAGA influencers and the rest mocking the seriousness of women who were trafficked and raped as teenagers look like cult fools. Good luck trying to get women to vote for Republicans in the midterms you insensitive clows. The Republican Party already has a woman voting problem. Keep mocking those of us who take rape and pedophilia seriously and demand accountability for corruption."

In November, Minaj appeared at the United Nations in support of the Trump administration to speak on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. In December, she was interviewed by Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk and the chairwoman of Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization. Then, after sharing increasingly supportive social media posts of conservative politics and the Trump administration, Minaj met with Trump and described herself as “probably the president’s number one fan." The move has been met with backlash from many of the rappers’ fans. Videos of her music being booed in clubs have gone viral,...

The nasty and expensive three-way contest between Cornyn and his two challengers — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt — is widely expected to go to a runoff election between the top two finishers, scheduled for late May. Cornyn, in his most difficult reelection fight since his first election to the Senate in 2002, could get shut out of the two-man brawl after the first round of voting in early March. (RELATED: Texas Democrat Accused Of Calling Ex-Opponent ‘Mediocre Black Man’) A J.L. Partners survey released Thursday found 27% of likely GOP primary voters support Paxton with...

California Democrats know how to manipulate the field of candidates to produce the governor’s race they want. That’s what I learned in the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom. It is not a loss that gives me sleepless nights. It is, however, annoying that people, including veteran political analysts and pundits, get wrong exactly what happened. Why? Because the truth is instructive as to how Democrats maneuver, and what could be happening in the gubernatorial race in 2026.

Good Saturday afternoon folks. I’d like to invite y’all to check out my Indie Conservative Christian short story that is available for free today on Amazon. It’s a former Amazon best seller in several Christian genres. It addressses the hypocrisy of climate change while celebrating the power of prayer and God's sovereignty. The book can be downloaded using the amazon link above or linked from my web site at: https://congareeridgearts.com/payton-finds-his-purpose Thanks and have a good one!

I'm losing faith in republicans to be completely honest, I believe in "Liberal Democracy" I mean people should have the freedom to choose and elect what is they system and political alignment that best suits their values and worldview having a goon squad shoot American citizens is nowhere near what my values are I am a conservative, I believe in Person responsibility, governance by consent, limited government control over personal legal enterprise and entrepreneurship

Newsom has presided over the annihilation of what was once the crown jewel of American prosperity—the Golden State California now accounts for roughly one quarter of the nation’s homeless, more than any other state by far. Since Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019, $37 billion has been spent on homelessness programs—yet the homeless population has grown by roughly 20,000 people, not declined. At the same time, according to U.S. Census data, California has suffered net domestic population losses every year since 2020—the first sustained population decline in state history. Between 2020 and 2023, more than 430,000 residents left the state,...

The Catholic archbishop for the U.S. military services said it “would be morally acceptable to disobey” orders if troops considered them against their conscience as the Trump administration intervenes in Venezuela, readies troops for a possible deployment to Minnesota and threatens to seize Greenland.Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio is the latest public figure to suggest that U.S. soldiers could disobey their orders. His comments also underscored the mounting concern being voiced by the first American pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, as well as his top cardinals in the United States, over the Trump administration’s foreign policy.“Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” Broglio...

Pamela Bondi has taken something of a beating from the MAGA team over the past year. The reasons aren’t hard to discern, and are no fault of hers. It seems that a lot of the less informed among our crew seriously expected her to step into office and immediately set out to arrest Pelosi, Schumer, Sanders, and whoever, and were sorely disappointed when this didn’t happen. Evidently, they have not heard the adage that begins, “The mills of justice grind slowly…” or have any familiarity with the legal process. There was the matter of “Epstein files,” which tripped her up...