Free Republic

Another preventable Afghanistan-pullout-like failure, because that's what Joe Biden does. oe Biden is a lucky bungler. With no Fox News cameras around and nobody paying much attention to what was going on in Niger, a disgraceful, utterly humiliating exit of the U.S. military from that benighted country now led by a military junta, has dealt the U.S. another strategic blow, and entirely preventably. The crummy little tinpot junta now running Niger has managed to kick Uncle Sam around, much as the Taliban and Iran did, creating an accumulating pattern of lost U.S. influence. And sure enough, they got us good,...

Explanation: Yes, but can your volcano do this? To the surprise of some, Mt. Etna emits, on occasion, smoke rings. Technically known as vortex rings, the walls of the volcano slightly slow the outside of emitted smoke puffs, causing the inside gas to move faster. A circle of low pressure develops so that the emitted puff of volcanic gas and ash loops around in a ring, a familiar geometric structure that can be surprisingly stable as it rises. Smoke rings are quite rare and need a coincidence of the right geometry of the vent, the right speed of ejected smoke,...

“Death to America!” We are used to that chant. Maybe too used to it. If you are old enough, you heard it in 1979 during the Iranian hostage crisis when supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Since then, it has been a recurring theme of Islamic fundamentalism, along with “Death to Israel.” Khomeini even went so far as to declare the United States “The Great Satan” in order to goad Muslims into a religious fervor aimed at destroying America. Since then, we have heard “Death to America” shouted thousands of times around the globe. When the...

We’re coming up on three and a half years into the Biden presidency — a presidency which from the outset promised an “all of government” regulatory onslaught to force a transition away from fossil fuels and to “green” energy. And the regulatory onslaught has indeed come forth. But how about the actual transition in energy use? Not so much. Let’s have a round-up of some recent data points. On the regulatory onslaught front, on March 7, 2024 Thomas Pyle of the Institute for Energy Research put out a list of “200 Ways the Biden Administration and Democrats Have Made it...

In the American Left’s vision of contemporary war, the West brings too many advantages in science, technology, and wealth. Why does Biden play Iranian poker with American and Israeli lives? Answer? He envisions war sort of like affirmative action, in which the less accomplished belligerent is allowed all sorts of concessions for the sake of equity. Israeli and American military capability, and particularly their missile defenses, are seen as unfair, almost like high achievers’ top SAT scores that are seen as unearned and used to privilege some over others and therefore must be countered or dropped. Given Iran’s and its...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently appointed Zakiya Carr Johnson as the State Department’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Her mission, according to Blinken, was to help build a workforce that reflects America. Given that Blinken has previously promoted a politically correct agenda, for example, suggesting that employees avoid gendered terms such as manpower and mother, this comes as no surprise. Blinken justified this diversity effort in terms of national security, saying, "We will continue to pursue this mission aggressively, because recruiting, nurturing, and promoting the most capable workforce possible is critical to our national security." Since Blinken knew of...

Tonight, at sunset, Jews across the world will celebrate Passover, something they’ve been doing annually for around 3,500 years. The holiday commemorates the miracle (and gift) of God leading the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. This was the world’s first slave revolt and led to God’s handing down the moral laws that are the backbone of the Judeo-Christian faiths. But the Passover story also tells us something important about the nature of tyranny, and the world’s governments, from Biden on down, would do well to heed that lesson. The story of Passover appears in Exodus, the second book of...

Explanation: Watch Juno zoom past Jupiter. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its now month-long, highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 16, the sixteenth time that Juno passed near Jupiter since it arrived in mid-2016. Each perijove passes near a slightly different part of Jupiter's cloud tops. This color-enhanced video has been digitally composed from 21 JunoCam still images, resulting in a 125-fold time-lapse. The video begins with Jupiter rising as Juno approaches from the north. As Juno reaches its closest view -- from about 3,500 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops...

April 20 will mark the 60th birthday of Gao Zhisheng, the man many have called “the bravest lawyer in China” who has been missing since 2017 – presumably imprisoned and possibly dead at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP has denied any knowledge of Gao’s whereabouts for the past seven years, with party officials insisting that they had nothing to do with his disappearance. But given Gao’s status as one of the most outspoken and effective critics of the CCP and the fact that he has already suffered multiple imprisonments and extensive torture, these claims seem dubious...

America's most radical president has hijacked every arm of the federal government to drag him across the finish line this November. And you're paying for it. President Joe Biden has taken every part of the federal government and transformed it into his personal reelection machine, creating a hyper-partisan election apparatus out of supposedly neutral federal agencies. And American taxpayers pay for all of it. Just since the beginning of April, several explosive revelations have surfaced that show the extent to which Joe Biden has weaponized the federal government in election matters. This should come as no surprise, as the administration...

All hail King Deep State! That is essentially what we have now, is it not? An unelected, all-powerful, mercurial king — and certainly not a binding constitution limiting government’s authority and preserving Americans’ rights. Our First Amendment forbids Congress from restricting an individual’s free speech, but that hasn’t stopped King Deep State from conspiring with Big Tech to silence every voice deemed offensive to the realm. Our Fourth Amendment forbids nosy officials from poking around in Americans’ private records and communications without first securing particularized warrants establishing probable cause that a crime has been committed, but that hasn’t stopped King...

This year, it’s not just the pro-Hamas wing that will be protesting, but Black Chicagoans opposed to the Democrats’ open-border policies. I’m old enough to remember the 1968 DNC convention in Chicago, and smart enough to see that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is no Richard J. Daley. So, as food prices rise with no end in sight, I advise you to stock up on popcorn before the August 19 convention in Chicago this year. As for the Democrats, I cannot imagine a scenario where there is anything but downsides for picking this site, this year. In case you forgot, the...

Once upon a time, illegal aliens cowered in the shadows, and Democrats told us that was wrong. Now, Democrats have de facto legalized illegal immigration, and the aliens no longer cower. Instead, they make it plain that they have the upper hand and are entitled to free food, free lodging, and freedom from America’s laws and rules. The most recent example is the group of illegal aliens who refused to yield a soccer field to a boys’ youth soccer game in New York City. We routinely hear stories of illegal aliens complaining that they don’t like the free food they...

Explanation: When the dark shadow of the Moon raced across North America on April 8, sky watchers along the shadow's narrow central path were treated to a total solar eclipse. During the New Moon's shadow play diamonds glistened twice in the eclipse-darkened skies. The transient celestial jewels appeared immediately before and after the total eclipse phase. That's when the rays of a vanishing and then emerging sliver of solar disk are just visible behind the silhouetted Moon's edge, creating the appearance of a shiny diamond set in a dark ring. This dramatic timelapse composite from north-central Arkansas captures both diamond...

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D. Miss.), who chaired the House J6 Committee, introduced legislation that calls for President Donald Trump to lose his Secret Service protection if he’s convicted and sent to prison. Thompson fully understands that there is a strong likelihood that the current Manhattan hush money trial or the upcoming Georgia RICO trial, both of which are open partisan lawfare rather than justice, will see at least one felony conviction and prison sentence for Trump. In other words, this legislation is an almost explicit call for Trump’s assassination. It’s been apparent since the get-go that the myriad criminal actions...

Larry Sanger remembers the promise of the web. He co-founded Wikipedia in 2001, with the hope that it could sustain a “free and open” Internet—a place where information, dissent, and creativity could thrive. At Wikipedia, he proposed a system of rules that encouraged users to “avoid bias” and maintain a “neutral point of view.” That Internet is gone. I reached out to Sanger following the revelation, from my original reporting, that former Wikimedia Foundation CEO Katherine Maher, who is now CEO of NPR, had explicitly rejected the principles of a “free and open” Internet, collaborated with government officials to censor...

Ever since the failed Sunak government ousted Suella Braverman for telling the truth about the Met Police’s ‘Dhimming’, the evidence that the woke bobbies are pandering to terrorists and suppressing their opponents continues to grow. The Met Police banned the display of English flags. Watched while the Union Jack was burned. While defending the display of Swastikas at pro-Hamas rallies. And then arrested Iranian protesters for signs denouncing Hamas While Hamas supporters have been able to call for Jihad, protesting them leads to public order arrests and then finally we can see the full implications of this policy “You are...

I have long followed every abortive attempt to develop “smart guns,” handguns that can only be fired by a designated user. Early attempts used magnetic locks, requiring rings on both hands. Obviously, anyone with a magnet could fire such guns, and gloves interfered. Various other methods, including radio transmitters, have also failed. Among the more recent was the Armatix iP1, a .22LR caliber pistol with a watch/transmitter. Back in 2015 the handgun cost $1400 and the watch, $300. Imagine what that would be with today’s inflation. It was rapidly revealed the transmitter could be spoofed with Radio Shack parts costing...

Even as all eyes are on the geographic Middle East, Iran’s agent, Hezbollah, has set up shop in Latin America and is heading here. The dangers from the steady stream of millions of unvetted migrants crossing illegally into our country should be clear to everyone. However, the most understated threat is that of terrorist infiltration. Reports of tens of thousands of military-age Middle Eastern men coming through should heighten everyone’s concerns about the potential for nation-ending terrorism. The Mexican cartel drug trafficking is far worse than most might think. Terrorist organization Hezbollah has partnered with the cartels and is active...

Today marks the 249th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the “shot heard ‘round the world” started the American Revolution and gave us not just the country we know today, but also started a chain of events that led to other countries freeing themselves from the yoke of tyranny. Scores of patriots gave their lives or were injured that day to stop the British Crown from further brutalizing the people. Their sacrifices were not in vain, as April 19, 1775 marked the beginning of the American Revolutionary War and culminated in...