Free Republic

The Russian strongman began his invasion refusing to accept the legitimacy of Ukrainian nationhood and identity. The past year has proven how wrong he was. After a year’s wait and just hours before a speech by President Joe Biden in Poland, Vladimir Putin gave his first “State of the Nation” speech since the invasion of Ukraine. In the nearly two-hour address, the Russian autocrat promised to press on in Ukraine, calling the “existential” conflict a “war” for the first time and asserting that the West had started it. He attacked the leaders of the Ukrainian government as “neo-Nazis,” and addressed...

At 99, Henry Kissinger is a living demonstration that you’re never too old to learn new things — or to unlearn wrong old things. The former secretary of state has implicitly acknowledged that he dramatically misjudged Russia, its war against Ukraine, and the qualities of Ukraine’s leaders and population. After Vladimir Putin described the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its repressive empire as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” suggesting it should be reconstituted, Kissinger urged America to “show greater sensitivity to Russian complexities.” After Putin invaded Georgia, Kissinger stated that “isolating Russia is not a sustainable long-range...

Former President Donald Trump revealed Thursday that the “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT” that he teased earlier in the week — which some of his supporters thought could be anything ranging from his announcing a bid for House Speaker to announcing who he would want to be his VP pick should he win the GOP primary — was a series of digital trading cards. “I’m doing my first official Donald J. Trump NFT collection right here and right now; they’re called Trump Digital Trading Cards,” Trump said in a promotional video. “Here’s one of the best parts: Each card comes with an automatic...

This would never be allowed to stand. All of the GOP would be requesting a do over election, along with the conservative media. It would be like having a Pennsylvania election with Philadelphia experiencing major voting issues. It is one thing to oppose Trump, but for these RINOs to support fraudulent elections crosses the line. Some of you still praise these people claiming they put out good books or made good points in the past, but they are the enemy if they support fraudulent elections to defeat the MAGA movement.

The Democrats’ surprisingly strong showing in the midterm elections has raised a familiar question: Did the pollsters get it wrong again? Heading into Nov. 8, polls from across the industry gave Republicans the clear edge in battleground races, as well as on the generic ballot. The data bolstered the belief among pundits that a red wave was on the rise.

Every election has its holdouts who predict polling and conventional wisdom leading up to the big vote is way off. This year, the optimism caucus has to work overtime for Democrats. With less than a week to go until Election Day, most Democrats are bracing for potentially huge defeats — including losing one or both chambers of Congress — but some in the party aren’t willing to concede anything just yet. “I don’t believe the GOP is headed for any kind of a wave,” said Angelo Cocchiaro, a Democratic Party activist based in Virginia. “The polls show tight races nationwide....

I'm posting a vanity to try to get this discussion going. Congressional committee "hearings" or "investigations" are required to have a discrete legislative purpose (separation of powers). Congress is not a permanent Grand Jury or a Star Chamber. The practice of making "criminal referrals" to avoid breaching the authority of Article II (Executive) or Article III (Judicial) co-equal branches is not one of the "Legislative powers herein granted" when we created Congress. In fact, Congress is FORBIDDEN from Bills of Attainder against individuals for the exact reason that Congress is NOT an Executive or a Judicial body. It appears that...

He found the beef. A Wendy’s customer who flew into a rage when his drive-thru order was wrong unleashed fury and bullets on the fast-food workers he believed messed up his meal, according to local reports. Christian Ellis, 19, went to a Wendy’s location in Frisco, Texas, on Aug. 17, according to the local FOX station. After picking up his food at the drive-thru window, he went inside the store and began arguing with employees about what was in his Biggie Bag.

The Democrats are riding a wave of successes the past few weeks. Gas prices edging downward, passage of the improbably named Inflation Reduction Act, successful meddling in Republican primaries and improving poll numbers have combined to make Biden and his compatriots believe they can win control of the Senate, and optimism is rising about the House. But when you dig through the numbers, Democrats are getting ahead of themselves.

The US and its Nato allies deservedly won the Cold War. The western values of democracy, freedom, human rights, rule of law and market economy prevailed over the Soviet Union’s communist totalitarian system. The latter imploded, broken by its inefficiencies, miscalculation, military overstretch, and delusions. Germany was reunified and the Warsaw Pact dissolved; not a single shot was fired. Three decades on, the global political and economic landscape could hardly be more depressing. The so-called US-led rules-based world order is crumbling. Globalisation seems to be in retreat, economic and energy supply chains have been disrupted, and a global recession is...

On Friday’s “MSNBC Prime,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein refused to admit he got inflation wrong the same way Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier in the week admitted she got inflation wrong — in part due to her failure to fully understand supply problems — and argued that what he said back in 2021 “was very much the case.” And “I’m not going to re-litigate who was right and who was wrong a year ago.” After playing a clip of Bernstein downplaying the longevity of inflation in October 2021, host Mehdi Hasan asked, “Do you want...

WASHINGTON, March 30 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels of oil over several months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), four U.S. sources said on Wednesday, as the White House tries to lower fuel prices. The latest amount of U.S. oil release being considered, which is equivalent to about two days of global demand, would mark the third time the United States has tapped its strategic reserves in the past six months, and would be the largest release in the near 50-year history of the SPR.

Today could be a milestone day as the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost three major strongholds in the Donbass region and all indications are that the area is beginning to be completely handed over to the Russian Army. See below in the maps how the situation in the region is developing, which is now very critical and irreversible for the Ukrainian Army. The Ukrainians lost 3 cities Russian forces occupy the city of Chuhuiv near Kharkov, the Americans have confirmed that the Ukrainians have lost the city of Izuym, something that has been revealed by WarNews247 for days. Finally, the Ukrainian...

<p>Protesters gathered in Minneapolis on Friday evening after the sentencing of former Minnesota police Officer Kim Potter to two years in prison in the April 2021 shooting death of Daunte Wright, according to reports.</p><p>In addition, reports were emerging on social media that looting was underway at stores in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Potter worked and where the death of Wright occurred.</p>

Former President Donald Trump shot back at his former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday after Pence said that Trump was “wrong” in claiming he had the ability as vice president to overturn the 2020 election, calling the notion of one man electing the president “un-American.” In a fiery statement Friday night, Trump criticized Pence and his “unwitting advisors,” calling the former vice president “an automatic conveyor belt” for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for refusing to intervene in Biden’s election.

Joe Biden immediately attacked law-abiding gun owners and used the debunked claim that the 2nd Amendment banned cannon ownership.“There’s no Amendment that’s absolute,” Biden said on Thursday, attacking the 2nd Amendment.

BACK IN 1997, when I was in my second year with the Cubs, I vividly recall watching batting practice when Mark McGwire stepped in the cage for the Cardinals. It was awesome. I saw how far the ball flew, and, like so many of us, I suspended disbelief. It was like watching a good horror movie, before we knew how wrong things could go. Over time, a cloud of doubt seeped into clubhouses. Suspicion about whether that teammate beating you out is playing fair. Records became mere placeholders. Every home run hit a little too far brought a hitter's integrity...

Few verses are more popular at Christmas than Luke 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward man.” It’s a heart-warming verse that Christmas cards and decorations have simplified, for decades, to mean “Peace on Earth.” It’s also the one that Linus quoted in A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) in his classic “drop the mic” moment during a speech after Charlie Brown yelled in frustration: “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!” Charlie Brown was decrying Scrooge-like commercialism. Boy, were those the good old days when that was all we had...

Joe Manchin is a hero for holding the line and killing Build Back Better. He cited two reasons—debt and inflation—to which all of us replied: well, duh. But in today’s Democrat party, fiscal responsibility is rare and fleeting. So, we should take a moment and sing the praises of this extraordinary accomplishment in the hopes we can inspire more. Let’s start with the cost. It is often said that nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. We’ve all been around the block; we know the game: give the public a taste of the government’s bountiful benefits and then...

A Silicon Valley venture capitalist says that men who take six months of paternity leave are ‘losers’ and that ‘in the old days men had babies and worked harder to provide for their future’ which was ‘the correct masculine response.’ Joe Lonsdale weighed into the raging debate sparked by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s decision to take paternity leave after he and his husband, Chasten, welcomed adopted twins into their family. Buttigieg was criticized for taking paid time off while the country continues to suffer from the effects of a major logjam at ports that has exacerbated the supply chain crisis....