Free Republic

Taking their cues from modern warfare, the far-right American terrorist movement sees off-the-shelf or home-built first-person viewer (FPV) drones as a critical weapon in their own future war against the US government, which has American authorities on edge. And there’s ample reasons for those fears: in the open and closed online spaces where far-right extremists congregate, talk is commonplace of how these cheap drones are revolutionizing current wars and will be the critical tools of a so-called second civil war. “The use of FPV drones in the war between Russia and Ukraine, the use of drones by terrorist groups such...

As you're already aware, Texas Democrats have fled democracy because they know they will lose a vote on redrawing U.S. congressional districts in the Lone Star State. Calling it 'gerrymandering,' they hypocritically hopped a plane to Illinois, which is one of the worst states for Democrat Party gerrymandering. Hating billionaires, they rushed to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who put them all up in one of his luxury hotels. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the vacationing Dems are facing arrest. That's got Jasmine Crockett being dumber than ever and promising to throw fists. (WATCH) VIDEO AT LINK............. They’re not putting...

The U.S. ambassador to NATO has said Russian President Vladimir Putin has a “sick and twisted and probably not logical” mind. American diplomat Matthew Whitaker was speaking as President Donald Trump’s deadline for Moscow to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine is set to expire on Friday. “It is impossible to get into the mind of Vladimir Putin because it is sick and twisted, and probably not logical. But I’m guessing he doesn’t want to take on the most powerful military in the world, which is the United States of America,” Whitaker told right-wing U.S. television channel Newsmax...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to US President Donald Trump’s remarks expressing “disappointment” over stalled progress on Ukraine, calling for realistic expectations and a return to diplomacy. “Disappointments stem from excessive expectations,” Putin said on Friday during a press briefing in Valaam. “Approaching problem-solving peacefully requires thorough discussions, either publicly or discreetly through negotiations.”

Egads! After a disastrous first 100 days, Donald Trump is starting to have a much more successful presidency. This is not what we, his foam-at-the-mouth critics, had planned or perhaps secretly hoped for. Some of this is a function of good policy, like getting NATO’s European members and Canada to spend much more on their defense, something previous American presidents asked for, but much too politely. Far from destroying the Atlantic alliance, as his critics feared, Trump may wind up being remembered for reviving and rebalancing it, to the advantage of both sides. Some of this is courageous policy: Joining...

Preface. This is my book review of Chris Mooney’s 2012 “The Republican Brain. The Science of Why They Deny Science—and Reality”. This has grown from a review of this book (far below) to more recent science and writing on the conservative mind. People who want certainty and do not like change or changing their mind have been with us since humans evolved. That is discussed in another post: Garcia, H. 2019. Sex, Power, and Partisanship. How evolutionary science makes sense of our political divide. Lately with all the division and even talk of civil war, there have been many broadcasts...

Hillary Clinton isn’t convinced that Qatar’s lavish gift to President Donald Trump will actually be “free.” On Wednesday, Clinton took to X to weigh in on the heated debate surrounding Trump’s decision to accept a $400 million plane “free of charge” as a gift from the Qatari Defense Ministry to the Pentagon. “No one gives someone a $400 million dollar jet for free without expecting anything in return,” she wrote. “Be serious.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is being torched online after she expressed sympathy for countries that may be affected by mass deportations from the U.S. after she remained largely silent on millions of migrants pouring into the U.S. under the Biden administration. Crockett, a first-term progressive who has made headlines for several controversial comments this year, appeared unaware of the apparent double standard, which drew criticism from conservative accounts and commentators and Republican lawmakers. "As far as I'm concerned, you randomly kidnapping folk and you throwing them out of the country against their civil rights, against their constitutional rights," Crockett said...

Even the most "normal" among them have no choice but to fall in line. The rage and hysteria are escalating. They’re openly calling for Trump’s assassination. They’re marching, they’re protesting, they’re screaming into the void for what, they don’t know. Something has been taken from them, something they desperately want back. It’s been ten long years of fighting, but nothing has worked. There is no way out for them. They’re trapped. If you talk to one of them, they will tell you they believe things that aren’t true. Trump is taking away Social Security and Medicaid. They’ve eliminated the National...

PBS NEWSHOUR: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join William Brangham to discuss the week in politics, including President Trump's continued faceoff with the courts, if Republicans will begin pushing back against the president and Harvard rejecting Trump's demands. David Brooks, New York Times: What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal. "The core argument is that Trump is really about amassing power," Brooks said of his column. "And anything that might potentially restrain his power, he will destroy. And that includes the court systems and anything part...

President Donald Trump’s deputies should stop talking about the apparent criminal record of the deported Salvadoran illegal migrant, says Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). “Don’t put everything out on social media” about deported migrant Kilmar Abrega Garcia, Van Hollen told ABC’s This Week show on April 20. The issue should be decided by judges, he said, adding: The Trump administration is trying to change the [Democrats’ lnarrative]. They’re trying to distract attention. Here’s where they should put their facts: they should put it before the court. They should put up or shut up in court [under] Judge Xinis, who’s the...

On Monday’s broadcast of “MSNBC Prime,” host Symone Sanders commented on the arson attack against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) by stating that while we don’t know the exact motives of the attacker, “The people that ratcheted the temperature up, the folks that should have been the loudest here” are in the Oval Office and after the attempted assassination of then-candidate Donald Trump “you had Democrats bending over backwards to say, we have to take the temperature down, we have to bring the temperature down, when they weren’t even the people that ratcheted the temperature up.” Sanders said, “[W]e don’t...

Not much of a secret when the president tweets to the entire world to "BUY" 3 hours before the announcement. "I'm writing to the White House to demand who knew in advance that the president was gonna once again flip flop on tariffs? And are people cashing in?" "There is just all too much opportunity for people in the White House and the administration to be insider trading."

Recently, the United States has imposed tariffs on all its trading partners, including China, under various pretexts. This severely infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of all countries, severely violates World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, severely undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system, and severely disrupts the global economic order. The Chinese government strongly condemns and resolutely opposes such move. By taking such action, the United States defies the fundamental laws of economics and market principles, disregards the balanced outcomes achieved through multilateral trade negotiations, ignores the fact that the U.S. has long benefited substantially from international trade, and weaponizes...

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently admitted that he can sometimes be a “train wreck” because he speaks “from the heart.” Minnesota’s Manic Marxist also told New York Magazine, in an interview published March 31st, that the Democratic Party lost the 2024 presidential election because it is too “timid.” Wow, never heard that one before. Tampon Timmy also claimed that Democrats should have doubled down on DEI and other forms of wokeness. This is the same guy who, when pressed during the vice presidential debate about patently false statements he had made regarding his presence at the Tiananmen Square protests...

President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship. Musk’s looming retreat comes as some Trump administration insiders...

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Wednesday on CNN’s “OutFront” that the Signal chat among senior national security officials shows President Donald Trump’s second administration was “drunk with power.” Schiff said, “There will be no accountability in his administration. He isn’t going to hold people responsible. He doesn’t want to fire people. He doesn’t even want to talk about it. He wants to put this off as another witch hunt, another hoax is kind of go to deflection. Don’t look at me whatever you do, America, I’m not responsible. That’s just going to breed further mistakes. We can’t have any confidence...

KYIV, Ukraine—It was a scorching summer day in 2014 when Artem Kravchenko and hundreds of other Ukrainian soldiers put their trust in a Russian promise not to open fire and retreated in a column from the surrounded city of Ilovaisk. By the end of the day, Kravchenko found himself lying in a ditch surrounded by dead comrades after Russian forces shot up the column. With three Russian bullets in his body, he had to drink his own urine to survive. “They started shooting from the right, so we went to the left and met another ambush there,” said Kravchenko, who...

When asked if he agrees with scholars who say the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis, Schumer responded, “Yes, I do.” “And democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him,” Schumer told moderator Kristen Welker. The full interview will air on “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

President Donald Trump and European leaders cautiously welcomed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin saying he accepted the basic precepts of a ceasefire, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warns Moscow demanding concessions is a “predictable” bid to derail talks altogether. On Thursday, a delegation of American negotiators had talks in Moscow, Russia, in hope of agreeing step one of President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan, a 30-day ceasefire. President Putin said Russia supports the notion in general terms, but said “there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners”...