Free Republic

Sir Roger Scruton has died. Diagnosed with cancer last summer, he passed away peacefully on Sunday surrounded by his family.

The election [May 23] of 170 part-time dilettantes from the eurosceptic Left and Right might shake up French or Italian politics. It will change absolutely nothing in the governing structure of the EU. Trumpian ideologue Steve Bannon deems the European Parliament vote this week to be “one of the most important elections ever” but he has never tangled in earnest with Germano-European deep state. The EU’s permanent machinery will reassert iron control once the noise has subsided.

REVIEW ESSAYSérotonine by Michel Houellebecq Flammarion, 2019, 352 pages For a brief moment, just before the end of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel Sérotonine, a ray of hope seems to galvanize its protagonist. For a short while he seems to recover his lust for life. Having languished for years without a sense of purpose, Florent-Claude resolves to end his reliance on antidepressants. Gradually something akin to a will to live begins to resurface: he notices skirts by the bar in a café, girls, facial expressions, emotion, desire, and irritation at the mind-numbing TV programs he had been watching every day. Indeed,...

Vice President Mike Pence will join Bret Baier tonight from Capitol Hill to discuss a range of issues surrounding the Trump administration, including how they plan to proceed with repealing and replacing ObamaCare. . . . "This is the bill, but if there are ways to improve that bill to give people greater confidence that we all are going to arrive at the same place where ObamaCare is done and we repealed it," Pence said. He said that they are committed to following through on President Trump's campaign promise of repealing and replacing ObamaCare. "President Donald Trump is a man...

In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint says after meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office, he believes the president seems very serious when it comes to listening to concerns from conservatives over the new GOP healthcare bill. “He seemed a lot more receptive than the word we had gotten from the House that this was the bill, take it or leave it,” DeMint tells us. DeMint spoke with me Thursday afternoon in DC.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Thursday warned House Republicans that their bill to replace ObamaCare won't pass in the Republican-controlled Senate in its current state. Cotton tweeted that the bill needs "major changes," and he cautioned Republicans against acting "like Dems" by voting before a budget estimate is completed.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of some of the most fiscally conservative representatives, held a press conference criticizing the Republican leadership's ObamaCare replacement bill. They announced they will be re-introducing a "clean repeal" bill tomorrow, which they said received unanimous Republican support last year.

AMERICA needs a “strong and united” European Union as an ally if it wants to remain the world’s top dog in the face of competition from China and Russia, Brussels chief Jean-Claude Juncker said today . . . Eurocrats and Mr Pence have both been keen to repair broken bridges, which have been smashed to an unprecedented extent following the billionaire tycoon’s shock election victory

More from philosopher Ryszard Legutko’s The Demon In Democracy, in which the Polish Catholic academic, an anti-communist dissident, explores the similarities between communism and liberal democracy: The liberal-democratic man, especially if he is an intellectual or an artist, is very reluctant to learn, but, at the same time, all too eager to teach. This trait of his character is in a way understandable once we remember that his nature was considerably impoverished by his turning back on standards of classical and Christian anthropology. He lost, or rather, as his apologists would have put it, was relieved of the intellectual instruments...

It is ludicrous to argue that, because the hard Left is primarily responsible for the outbreak of chaos and violence that caused Donald Trump’s Chicago rally to be canceled last night, it is wrong to condemn the thuggery Trump often encourages at his appearances. Trump has encouraged physical battery at his campaign events, even telling supporters he’d pay their legal fees if they get arrested for assaulting dissenters. (See, e.g., Iowa event: “So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of ‘em, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell — I promise...

"Democrats will need to gain 4 or 5 seats to take control. " --snip-- Seats in play: McCain (R) AZ Bennett (R) CO Rubio (R) FL Kirk (R) IL Vitter (R) LA Blunt (R) MO Burr (R) NC Ayotte (R) NH Ried (D) NV Portman (D) OH Toomey (R) PA Johnson (R) WA

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Alan David Tikal, 46, the principal operator of a large-scale mortgage fraud/mortgage elimination scheme, was sentenced to 24 years in prison. In September 2014, Tikal was convicted of 11 counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering by United States District Judge Troy L. Nunley. Between January 7, 2010 and August 20, 2013, Tikal operated a business under the name KATN, which targeted vulnerable and non-English speaking homeowners looking for mortgage assistance in the wake of the financial meltdown. According to evidence presented at trial, Tikal and his associates promised these homeowners that their outstanding mortgage debt would...

President Obama is “deeply disappointed” in Governor Scott Walker (R., Ohio) for signing “right-to-work” legislation that allows workers to decide if they want to pay union dues or not. “Wisconsin is a state built by labor, with a proud pro-worker past,” Obama said in a Tuesday evening statement. “So even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans – by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/415134/krauthammers-take-disclose-everything-ian-tuttle

Emails obtained through a federal lawsuit show that two top aides to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were running interference internally during the 2012 Benghazi terror attack. The aides were Philippe Reines, widely described as Clinton’s principal gate-keeper, and Cheryl Mills, who has been at Clinton's side for decades. The emails show that while receiving updates about the assault as it happened, Mills told then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland to stop answering reporter questions about the status of Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was missing and later found dead.

Dear Friends, Obamacare, the VA scandal, the IRS scandal--these are just a few examples of what happens when we give government huge power without oversight. It's about to happen again--the Obama Administration is fighting for a government takeover of the Internet and the Federal Communications Commission is going to vote on it February 26th. That's why I am writing you today--I need your help to stop this.President Obama came out a few weeks ago urging the FCC to vote to regulate the Internet the same way that it regulates public utilities under Title II. What this means is that, for...

Last night, lawmakers released the massive, 1,603-page, $1.1 trillion spending bill that will fund the government for the coming year. Here are a few things Heritage experts have learned about the “cromnibus." The bill: Funds most of the federal government through September 30, 2015 while extending funding for the Department of Homeland Security until February 27, 2015. Does not block funding for President Obama’s amnesty. Makes only minor tweaks to Obamacare, but leaves the big-government health program otherwise intact. Continues the education spending spree, and in fact increases spending on K-12 and higher education.