Free Republic

At the O2 Arena in London, the president sounded exasperated. His worldview had lostFor people like Fran who wanted answers, Obama gave none. He just seemed depressed. He said that Britain, like America, is at a “fork in the road.” He said that we’re too materialistic, and have lost two historic defenses against consumerism: religion and counterculture. (Hip-hop used to have a purpose, now rappers just talk about money.) He said there was a “significant risk” that AI becomes a tool of oppression and censorship, and said that Donald Trump has committed “violence against the truth.” “Old men hanging on...

Former President Barack Obama implied Tuesday that President Donald Trump was to blame for Charlie Kirk’s assassination, because of “extreme” personnel and policies that aroused violent opposition. Obama was interviewed onstage by Steve Scully at the Jefferson Educational Society in Erie, Pennsylvania. He mourned Kirk’s death, saying it was “horrific,” but made sure to recite an (inaccurate) laundry list of Kirk’s more controversial statements, including a false claim that Kirk claimed black women were stupid. Obama then said that Trump wanted to use Kirk’s assassination as “a rationale for trying to silence discussion around who we are as a country...

Former President Barack Obama believes the nation is at an “inflection point” following Charlie Kirk’s assassination as the Democrat said in his first public comments on the tragedy Tuesday that the conservative commentator’s violent death was a “tragedy” regardless of his views. “And then when it happens to somebody, even if you think they’re quote unquote ‘on the other side of the argument,’ that’s a threat to all of us and we have to be clear and forthright and condemn it,” Obama said as he addressed the shocking murder during a Pennsylvania forum. “Regardless of where you are on the...

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union." Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787. The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question...

The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was "deeply concerned" by Israel's plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements "illegitimate" and an obstacle to peacemaking. In a rare interview to the Israeli media, the Palestinian president reached out to the Israeli public, decrying the weekend attack in the settlement of Itamar as "despicable, immoral and inhuman." But he rejected the Israeli suggestion that his government was indirectly to blame. While the country was still reeling from the gruesome attack, in which two parents and three young...

Obama praised Mubarak for announcing he would not seek reelection in September, but said more was needed. The key question for Mubarak is "How do I leave a legacy behind?" Obama said. "How do I get through this transformative period? I hope he makes the right decision." "The only thing that is going to work is moving to an orderly transition process, right now," the president said, adding that change must also be responsive to the grievances of people. President Obama on Friday stopped short of urging President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power but made it clear that...