Free Republic

U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell occupies one of the most critical positions in American diplomacy, not only because Germany represents the EU’s largest economy and has disproportionate influence on the continent, but because of its pivotal role with respect to both Iran’s efforts to evade U.S. snapback sanctions, and Russia’s efforts to provide energy to and thus leverage over European nations. With the looming November 5th date for the snapback of sanctions on Iran’s most critical sectors including energy, shipping and finance, I thought there would be no better guest to have on the Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten...

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, my guest was Rich Higgins. Higgins, an expert in unconventional warfare and combatting terrorism with over 20 years experience at senior levels of the Defense Department, and early supporter of President Trump, served as director for strategic planning in President Trump's National Security Council (NSC). That all changed when a memo that he produced for President Trump warning of the political warfare he was to face internally from the Deep State, and externally from the media and like-minded interest groups in collusion with the administrative state, leaked out to the public....

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had Sean Bigley, a national security attorney who prosecutes intelligence community whistleblower retaliation cases on to discuss the stunning and chilling demise of his client Adam Lovinger. Lovinger, a highly regarded Pentagon analyst, has found his career ruined, allegedly due to whistleblower retaliation -- first losing a prominent position in the Trump NSC, then his security clearance and finally being suspended without pay altogether while trying to litigate four separate cases against the officials who targeted him. The various probes and allegedly baseless allegations raised against Lovinger come from Obama...

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had former CIA operative and leader of CIA's Counter Terrorism Center’s WMD unit, author of the must-read and highly relevant 2009 book Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and outspoken critic of the politicized leadership in America's intelligence and national security apparatus, Charles Sam Faddis on the podcast to discuss among other things: Why Faddis supports revoking John Brennan's security clearance -- and the bureaucratization and politicization of the leadership of the intelligence community versus the rank-and-file analysts and operatives in the field Whether politics dominates over...

For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had historian, Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, former Special Advisor to the Secretary of State and consultant to the National Security Council during the Reagan administration, author of 38 books and most pertinent to today, Iran expert, Michael Ledeen on the podcast to discuss among other things: The impending collapse of the Khomeinist regime and what the U.S. can do to accelerate it The false narrative about alternatives for Iran being either appeasement or war The history of U.S. intelligence failures in Iran How secular...

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had nationally syndicated radio host, columnist, author of numerous books, teacher, film producer and co-founder of PragerU, Dennis Prager, on the podcast to discuss among other things: How Dennis Prager ended up a conservative as an Ivy League-educated Jewish intellectual from Brooklyn, New York -- contrary to so many of his peers How perceptions of human nature divide Left and Right Whether government has filled the void of religion for the increasingly secular and progressive American coasts How the good intentions that underlie Leftist policy prescriptions lead to horrendous outcomes...

For this week's Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, I had legendary classical liberal legal theorist and longtime professor at University of Chicago Law School and now at NYU Law, Professor Richard Epstein, on the podcast to discuss among other things: The role that Professor Epstein's famous book, "Takings" played in Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearing -- and then-Senator Joe Biden's hectoring Professor Epstein's groundbreaking theories on private property rights, eminent domain and the Takings and Commerce Clauses The practical argument against progressivism Whether we should deconstruct the administrative state, and if so how to do it The danger to...

For this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast, my guest was Rachelle Peterson, director of research projects at the invaluable National Association of Scholars, and author of the groundbreaking report "Outsourced to China: Confucius Institutes and Soft Power in American Higher Education." Peterson’s investigation into these Chinese Communist Party-backed purported cultural exchange and language studies centers on U.S. college campuses — which she demonstrated were actually used to propagandize and penetrate our schools — preceded the recent disclosure of an FBI investigation into Confucius Institutes and a legislative effort to probe and counter their malign activities. Given China’s increasingly...

In honor of Independence Day, for this week’s Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast I take a deep dive into the Declaration of Independence, discussing: -Its unique place in human history and the cause of freedom -The link between natural law and natural rights, faith and freedom -The Founders’ emphasis on virtue and morality to sustain a free system of limited government -Parallels between the charges laid out against King George III in the Declaration and modern America from the administrative state to sanctuary cities -The Founders’ views on slavery, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and failing to live up to...

Democrat pollster and political consultant par excellence Doug Schoen has spent over 30 years advising presidents and prime ministers. Unlike most such political animals, he also has a deep understanding of political philosophy, which has moved further "right" the more he has seen government in action. Last but not least, Doug's one of those rare few remaining JFK Democrats who has always believed in defending capitalism and America's national interest. I had Doug on the Big Ideas podcast to draw out some of his lessons from a life well-spent as a master practitioner and student of politics, to share his...

Penn Law Professor Amy Wax has become a controversial figure because of her politically incorrect comments advocating in favor of bourgeois values and the WASP culture from which they stem, and in her claims that black students had generally performed at lower levels than other students in her classes in context of a conversation about the downsides of affirmative action -- comments that got her ousted from teaching the first year civil procedure class for which she had previously won an award for "teaching excellence." Professor Wax and I touched on her beliefs regarding bourgeois values, the comments on race...

In Part II of Ben's conversation with former federal prosecutor and National Review contributing editor Andrew C. McCarthy, Ben and Andy discussed Russiagate, the pervasive unethical and at times lawless behavior of law enforcement and the intelligence community with respect to Donald Trump and Russia versus Hillary Clinton and her e-mail server, the apparently limitless mandate of Robert Mueller's special counsel, obstruction of justice and much more. You can listen to the interview on iTunes, download it here, or read the transcript in full here. If you like what you hear, please do subscribe, rate and review in the iTunes...

Today Ben Weingarten launched a new podcast, Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten, of likely interest. Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten features compelling long-form conversations with exceptional thinkers and doers -- primarily though not exclusively of a conservative/libertarian bent -- on the most critical ideas and issues of our time, and all time. The podcast aims to inject a counter-narrative to the prevailing progressive orthodoxy, and elicit deep insights on fundamental questions ranging from national security to economics, and philosophy to culture – fostering timeless discussions on what really matters, rather than chasing the news cycle. Here are the inaugural episodes:...

Several days ago CNN and other major media outlets published stories on Jesse Morton (fka Younus Abdullah Muhammad), a former Al Qaeda-allied American jihadi who went to jail for threatening the lives of South Park's co-creators over an episode in which they depict Muhammad in a bear suit, only to emerge from prison years early as a supposedly "reformed," "deradicalized" voice for peace now working to "counter" jihadis at a George Washington University counterterror think tank. In the press reports around Morton, there was little evidence indicating that Morton explicitly rejected the Islamic supremacist, Sharia ideology to which he adhered....

Four years ago, the Democratic rank-and-file showed its true stripes in booing references to G-d, and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, both of which had been omitted from the party’s original platform but were rammed through over a failed voice vote by former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Would it come as any surprise then that in 2016 the younger, angrier, true-believing progressives outside the Democratic National Convention would literally burn that wretched sign of “Zionist imperialism” that is the Israeli flag? In fact, such anti-Semitism masquerading as anti-Zionism represents the quintessential act of a progressive movement dedicated to...

Interview starts at ~4:24.

For the New Criterion, Ben Weingarten, commentator and Founder & CEO of ChangeUp Media sits down with Mark Steyn, international bestselling author, political pundit, cultural critic and hardened climate change dissenter Mark Steyn for an in-depth interview. During their discussion, Weingarten and Steyn discuss the chilling of free speech by the climate alarmists and their enablers in the political and legal system, the stakes of the defamation suit filed against Steyn by climate scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann over a critical blog post, why it is the scientific community that resembles a racket rather than demonized “Big Oil,” the misogyny...

In the face of a monolithically climate alarmist academia, media and government, several courageous individuals are working to unsettle the purportedly “settled science” of climate change, arguing that carbon dioxide atmospheric enrichment provides manifold benefits for mankind, that flawed economic models are being used to justify anti-capitalist and destructive public policies, that mild warming of the planet ought to be celebrated and fighting back courageously against those who wish to chill free speech by using the law to litigate science. This is their story. Featured speakers include Mark Steyn, international bestselling author and commentator, Dr. Craig Idso, Founder Former President...

Dr. Victoria Coates: Well I mean, I don’t know who can channel Jeane Kirkpatrick best. It is interesting to me that many Establishment institutions in foreign policy — just as they have in every other branch of policy — have been deeply disturbed by Senator Cruz, and the kinds of approaches that he proposes because he has very little time for quote unquote “conventional wisdom.” And you have a lot of people whose sort of “bread and butter” depends on their position on editorial boards, their positions in think tanks, their appearances on television, and all of that is based on a certain way...

So why is Yale University, whose crest written in Hebrew and Latin translates to “Light and truth,” giving a platform to an ideology that blots out light and conceals or obfuscates truth as part of its greater mission for world domination? If all ideologies are equal in value, and if our own heritage is to be defined primarily in the Obama/Zinn milieu of The Crusades, Western imperialism, and slavery, then perhaps Yale’s decision is not only justified but represents a healthy dollop of redistributive justice. Even so, Yale is endorsing an ideology under which Yale itself could not exist, just...