Free Republic

With a potential impeachment trial in the US Senate looming, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sparred with Senators in a budget hearing over his alleged mishandling of border security. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La) pointed out that "a recent Rasmussen survey shows that 57% of likely voters and 68% of Hispanics believe President Biden is importing migrants to the US to create a permanent Democrat majority. Are they wrong?" The Secretary scoffed, saying "the notion that we intend to allow illegal immigration is nothing short of preposterous. We are simply overwhelmed by the massive numbers of migrants seeking...

Here's something we learned just from Politico's headline: Republicans are waging a crusade against electric cars, and they might regret that in the 2024 election. Politico is correct if waging a crusade against electric cars means opposing EV mandates and impossible deadlines. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wants the entire U.S. military fleet to be electric by 2030. It was Politico who told us last December that the Biden administration's $7.5 billion allocation had led to exactly zero charges being installed two years later. It's funny … Politico told us one year ago that Republicans were stoking the fires of the...

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act propelled forward President Joe Biden’s vision of a clean energy economy. As outlined in a 2023 guidebook, this remaking of the U.S. economy includes billions in funding for green tech manufacturing — everything from hydrogen production to batteries to solar panels. The plan will not only create jobs and investments for Americans, according to the Biden administration, it will lower the nation’s dependence on China, which currently controls 80% of the global production in polysilicon and other components used in solar panels, 80% of wind-turbine components, and 89% of the refining to produce...

When future historians decide to write the definitive treatise on the downfall of the state of California, we can be sure that the final days of August 2022 will feature very prominently. It was on August 25 that the state announced a bold plan to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by the year 2035. Everything had to be electric from that point forward. What would that do to the economy of the state of California, given how expensive electric vehicles are? Where were we going to get the materials to manufacture all of these new EV batteries? No one...

Disappointed in the slow pace of consumer voluntary purchases of electric vehicles (EVs), President Biden is mandating that by 2032 a majority of new cars sold in the US must be either EVs or hybrids. So far US manufacturers have taken huge losses on EVs because only a tiny minority of drivers are willing to buy them. Biden dismissed auto manufacturers' objections by pointing out that "China manufactures these cars for a lot less. If our domestic producers can't hack it there is an alternative that may better fit folks' budgets." Former President Trump predicted that "Biden's mandate will cause...

VIDEOIn just 38 days as of this writing on April 27, my wife and I will be embarking to the ABC islands of the Caribbean again aboard the Celebrity Beyond. In September 2022 we made the same cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox. In this video, I attempt to relay the incredible excitement of embarkation day. The moment we stepped aboard the Equinox we were enveloped in luxury which included the surroundings, the food, and the drink... lots of drinks as you can see. Embarkation day is always memorial. This time we are looking forward to catamaran sailings with our group...

New York City is paying $387 per day to house and feed each migrant household in taxpayer-funded shelters. Over the course of a year this amounts to $141,255 per household. The median household income in the US is $75,000. A full-time minimum-wage job pays less than $15,000. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo) asked Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra "why workers who have to live on less should should be taxed so much for the less than lavish accommodations being provided for illegal immigrants?" Becerra said "we aren't letting New Yorkers bear all the burden of supporting these...

In 2023 Venezuela reported 26.8 murders per 100,000 inhabitant. This was down from 35.3 the previous year. A possible explanation is that the surge in illegal migration from Venezuela to the US included a contingent of criminals in its midst. This past week, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested for murdering Laken Riley, a student studying nursing at the University of Georgia. Last summer, Ibarra was arrested in New York City for "acting in a manner to injure a child," but was immediately released under the City's sanctuary policy toward illegal migrants. NYC Mayor Eric Adams...

Though the House of Representatives narrowly approved his impeachment, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told Kristin Welker of NBC's "Meet The Press" that "I have no regrets for anything that's happened on my watch. I have maintained all along that this country needs the millions of refugees that we have helped come into the country since President Biden took office." "Let's look at what we've gained," he suggested. "Hotel vacancy rates in some of our largest cities have plummeted. Many of these businesses were hit hard by the COVID lockdowns and were facing bankruptcy. Now with the government paying...

By a vote of 214 for and 216 against, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas narrowly escaped being impeached by the US House of Representatives. Republicans had argued that his complete failure to interdict illegal immigration warranted his removal from office. However, every Democrat and three Republicans voted against impeachment. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo) voted against impeachment saying that "Secretary Mayorkas has completely failed at his job. He is incompetent. He is an embarrassment. And he will most likely be remembered as the worst secretary of Homeland Security in the history of the United States. However, he was only following...

VIDEOMAGA CRUISE Tour of the Celebrity Beyond with Brian Craig.

Members of the progressive "Squad" comprised of far left Democrats in Congress were in the news this week. Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mi) were the only two members of the House of Representatives to vote against the No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act. This legislation bars anyone who participated in the October 7 murder spree of Israeli civilians from immigrating to the United States. Tlaib defended her vote, saying that "the perpetrators of the October attack are precisely the persons targeted by the Israeli Defense Forces for extermination. If we don't give them refuge their chances...

President Biden insists that "it's the Republicans who are responsible for the mess at the border. They won't give me the money I need to hire the Border Patrol officers and judges to keep the flow moving. If I had the money all the migrants stuck in Texas could've been distributed to states that currently have a shortage and the crisis would be over." House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La) disagreed, saying "there are already laws on the books authorizing the President to prevent the illegal entry through our borders. The crisis stems from the President's refusal to enforce these laws....

It was a frightening few minutes in the Golders Green area of Northwest London on Monday, when a Muslim man brandished a knife at patrons and staff of Kay’s Kosher Supermarket. Eyewitnesses report that the individual, who has not been named, entered the supermarket and began shouting statements about Palestine before revealing a knife. Video footage below shows that people attempted to keep him out of the store using a shopping cart. Shomrim responded quickly, but the man had fled into an apartment located directly across from the supermarket. Witnesses described a rapid change of attire, suggesting an attempt to...

In response to the Biden Administration's failure to protect Texas from being invaded by foreigners, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) cited Articles I and IV of the US Constitution as justification for deploying the state's own defensive tactic of erecting razor wire and deploying volunteers to deter these invaders. In turn, the Administration cited Article VI's national supremacy clause to support it's demand that Texas stand aside and allow federal agents to control its border with Mexico. Abbott insisted that "the law is on our side. On top of the constitutional obligation to protect every state from invasion there are also...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) policy to increase diversity, equality, and inclusiveness in its workforce may make flying more risky. Part of the diversity being sought is to employ more people with severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical ailments. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg pointed out that "people with severe mental and physical disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the federal workforce. We must address this inequity. In my opinion, the increased risk is minimal in comparison with the greater good that will be accomplished by giving persons who might otherwise be unemployable the feeling...

So says the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jared Nadler (D-NY). "The fact is that the birth rate in this country is way below replacement level," he said. "We need immigrants to pick the vegetables and have the babies that lazy Americans refuse to. Fortunately tens, maybe hundreds of millions of people want to migrate to the United States." Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill) bolstered Nadler's assertions, saying "the millions crossing our border with Mexico ensure that we will be able to eat." Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wa) claimed that "study after study has proven that the US economy...

The booming sound you may be hearing right now -- especially if you live in San Francisco or Washington, D.C -- could be resulting from liberal heads exploding as they read about what Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said during a conference this month. Electric vehicles will only ever make up 30 percent of the market or less, he argued, and politicians should get out of the way and let the markets decide which cars are preferable to consumers.Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Al Gore have not commented.Toyoda's opinion doesn't mean that he's completely given up on cleaner energy, though; he...

The Federal Aviation Administration, under a national outreach program for diversity and inclusion, is pushing to recruit workers with total deafness in both ears, blindness, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism. John Hinderaker wonders, “How crazy are these people?” and as Paul Simon might say, the FAA is still crazy after all these years. Joe Biden’s pick to head the FAA was Phillip Washington, who proclaimed that safety would be his top priority. Washington was unable to answer a series of basic aviation questions including “what causes an aircraft to spin or...

Delta Airlines has revealed that the airline is now asking its employees to capitalize the words “Black” and “Brown” but not “White” when describing one’s race. Delta’s new “Inclusivity Language Guide” states, RACE AND ETHNICITY STYLE NOTE • Capitalize “Black” and “Brown” in Delta communications. Unlike Black or Brown, “white” should be lowercase. When referencing race, ethnicity, or nationality, be as specific as possible.] This follows the far-left Associated Press style guidelines for capitalizing all race-identifying words except for “White.” According to the Associated Press...