Free Republic

First the cliff notes version: There’s an important detail to remember. People are laughing at the long-range Russian bombers being left out in the open, vulnerable to attack. However, the bomber visibility is required as part of several nuclear agreements between the USA and Russia (SALT and START). Our U.S. long range nuclear capable bombers, covered under the same agreements, are also visible. Ukraine President Zelenskyy is playing with fire by targeting them, which also explains why Zelenskyy never told President Trump in advance.The U.S and NATO have provided the means. However, #1) did Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just exploit...

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a 2-hour call on Monday in what the U.S. said was a push to get Russia to end its deadly war in Ukraine. Both Trump and Putin described the call in a positive light, with the Kremlin chief saying it was "frank" and "useful," but it is not immediately clear what results were achieved. Trump took to social media to praise the call as having gone "very well" and said, "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War." "The conditions for...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) signaled Thursday that President Trump’s threat to levy tariffs on key trading partners of the U.S. is hurting his constituents, saying “when we start losing, you back off.” “Almost every industry in Kentucky has come to me and said, ‘It will hurt our industry and push up prices of homes, cars,’ and so, I’m going to continue to argue against tariffs,” Paul said late Thursday in an interview with CNN. The Kentucky Republican argued the U.S. has “more leverage” than any other nation, but not “all the leverage.” He urged the Trump administration to be “smart”...

Los Angeles County officially sued utility company Southern California Edison on Wednesday, claiming that its power lines caused the spark that ignited the Eaton Fire in high winds on January 7. The Los Angeles Times reported: The lawsuit is the latest to allege that Edison’s equipment caused the blaze, which destroyed about 9,000 homes and killed 17 people, making it one of the most destructive wildfires in California history. Residents have filed more than 40 lawsuits against the utility, focusing on transmission towers where the first flames were spotted. The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre also plan to sue...

President Trump’s favorability rating at the start of his second term is significantly higher than it was when he first took office in January 2017, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. In the survey, conducted a few days after Trump was sworn into office, 47 percent of registered voters said they had a favorable opinion of Trump, while 45 percent said they had an unfavorable view of him. Another 8 percent said they either had not heard enough or refused to answer. That’s a marked change from the results of a similar survey conducted a few days after...

Really want to keep the Alt Left in hysterics? Start a "repeal the 22nd" movement on social media.

“I hope to learn what the vice president does with all this downtime,” journalist Mark Halperin said about Vice President Kamala Harris’s “late start” Thursday on the campaign trail. Harris’s light campaign schedule comes after she spent two days away from the campaign trail to prepare for an interview with NBC News and a town hall with CNN. Halperin, who doubles as an analyst and attempts to report data without spin, questioned why Harris would get such a “late start” on Thursday with only 12 days until election day. “Today, the vice president, once again, not doing anything until –...

Some of the ways I feel myself aging are obvious. Half of my hairs are white now. I can’t stay up past midnight. I hate loud restaurants and bars. I feel a deep urge to read long biographies of generals. But other signs of aging are subtler. For example: I am now worried about the US budget deficit. Coming of age as an economics reporter in the 2010s, there was no clearer generational divide than the one about government debt. Older reporters, who came of age during the exploding deficits of the 1980s and the balanced budget battles of the...

An estimated 1.5 million taxpayers will be notified of their automatic eligibility for a new round of state-funded Anchor property-tax relief benefits starting next week, state Treasury officials said Tuesday. The benefits, intended to help offset the state’s high local property taxes, will once again total as much as $1,750 per household. Those eligible for automatic enrollment will see letters notifying them that their applications for Anchor benefits will be filed with the state automatically beginning Aug. 19, the officials said. Later this month the Department of the Treasury’s Division of Taxation will also be sending out information via mail...

The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas claims that a four-day pause in fighting in Gaza will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time on Thursday (3 a.m. EST), as the first hostages will be delivered to Israel, and some Palestinian prisoners are released by Israel. The Times of Israel reported Wednesday: Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk says in an interview with Al Jazeera that the temporary truce between the terror group and Israel will enter into force tomorrow at 10 a.m. The announcement comes after Israel has reached an agreement with Hamas for a four-day halt in fighting and the release of...

I got an email from my Senators that explained why they voted for the treaty. They made a deal with Obama. Tax dollars for Tennessee! They met with him told him they would vote for the treaty and for money to update our nuclear weapons facilities and asked that he request those funds in his budget (quote): Implementation includes spending $3.6 billion for a new secured area at Oak Ridge, covering 15 acres instead of the current 150. It means tearing down the last 17 Cold War buildings. The more efficient facility will save taxpayers $200 million each year in...

Russia is flouting its obligations under a major arms control treaty with the United States, according to State Department officials. “Russia is not complying with its obligation under the New START Treaty to facilitate inspection activities on its territory,” a State Department spokesman said Tuesday. "Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team outlined that breakdown in a notification to key congressional leaders on Tuesday. The assessment points to the degeneration of the last major arms...

HILLARY'S SECRET WAR The real Ken Starr Posted: July 15, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern Editor's note: The following is an eye-opening look into New York Times best-selling author Richard Poe's revealing book, "Hillary's Secret War." Whereas Edward Klein's book on the New York senator reveals previously unknown aspects of her personal life, Poe's expose focuses on how Hillary Clinton and the left's "shadow government" have labored to put her and her far-left agenda in the White House by controlling the still-uncensored flow of real news to Americans – via the Internet.If that sounds too fantastic to be true, read on....

Blame START for the Ukraine Invasion – “Putin Hails Extension of New Start Treaty” proclaims a Moscow headline weeks after Joe Biden was sworn in as president. A sceptic of Putin should wonder, why does he like extending the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty? He benefits from the reduction of American long-range nuclear missiles because this makes it more difficult for the United States to react to Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. If Russia seeks territorial expansion against its neighbors (and she does), and the United States does not seek to swallow up her neighbors (and she does not), then limiting...

Russia and the United States have released their latest nuclear weapons count at a time when ties between Moscow and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance were in freefall. The Russian Foreign Ministry published on Monday its latest report on "the total number of strategic offensive arms," a tally required every six months by both Moscow and Washington as per their bilateral New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) that entered into force in 2011.... Russia counted 527 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), deployed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers, 1,458 warheads...

The White House said on Thursday that President Joe Biden will offer a five-year extension of New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) to Russia, an offer far more generous than the Russians were expecting. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a one-year extension of New START in October.

Russians secretly mocked Obama for so easily giving them American uranium, nuclear fuel contracts and technology, FBI informant reveals in excerpts from the new book "Fallout: Nuclear Bribes, Russian Spies and the Washington Lies that Enriched the Clinton and Biden Dynasties." The failed Russian reset .. repeatedly gave Russia's nuclear monopoly, Rosatom, assets like uranium under U.S. soil and billions of dollars in nuclear fuel contracts that made American electricity customers reliant on Moscow for years to come. And then Vladimir Putin pulled the rug out from under the Obama administration in 2014, invading the Crimea region of U.S. ally...

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday addressed the ongoing fight to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci shared in that at this time, the White House coronavirus task force is seeing “glimmers of hope” because, as bad as this week will predictably be for deaths, the American public should start to see “the beginning of a turnaround” soon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said an Obama-era nuclear weapons pact would lapse unless the US took an interest in renewing it. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) pact limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers and is due to expire in 2021 unless renewed. […] The treaty limits the US and Russia to a maximum of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, well below Cold War caps. It was signed in 2010 by former US President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. It is one of the key...

PDF of Hillary briefing Corker and McCain on what to say during Sunday shows regarding dismantling US missiles in Europe.