Free Republic

Matt and James discuss the situation in government and society today, from the presidential election, open borders, terrorism in the middle east and a lot in between. This is a 1 hour and 12 minute discussion so be sure to bookmark it if you can't listen to all of it at one time. Matt graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training class 105 in Coronado California. He served on east coast UDT and SEAL teams, taking a Naval Special Warfare detachment to Beirut in 1983. He is also an author (with a new book coming out soon) and is "Travis McGee"...

“How many of these places where polite society turns out to be provably insane do we have to see before we stop taking their judgment on anything as significant?” — Bret Weinstein. The USA is a runaway train with a dead man in the engineer’s seat. The conductor goes through the cars assuring the passengers that everything is fine. . . never mind the screeching wheels on the curves. . . or the blinding strobe effect of low sunlight passing through the trees out the window at a hundred and forty mph. . . or the bump that made half...

Never before have we talked to so many top government officials who, in private, are so worried about so many overseas conflicts at once.Why it matters: We don't like to sound dire. But to sound a siren of clinical, clear-eyed realism: U.S. officials say this confluence of crises poses epic concern and historic danger. (snip)Former top intelligence officials tell us domestic unrest is one of their biggest fears — whether it's triggered by court rulings against former President Trump or protests over war in the Middle East. (snip) But there has been a total collapse of people's trust in the...

The electric vehicle honeymoon is over. Don’t expect the marriage itself to last much longer either. The mass conversion from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs) to electric vehicles was never more than a Democrat/environmentalist hallucination anyway. It was the most ill-conceived government policy objective in modern history. The transition should have been a non-starter. It’s riddled with numerous deal killers. It’s like having a dozen fatal diseases all at the same time. Any goal as massive as a total conversion from ICE vehicles to EVs requires careful planning and infrastructure preparation. It would necessitate a rapid doubling of electricity generation...

Fallout shelters can cost millions of dollars. But this DIY underground bunker costs about $1,000. You wouldn't want to live in this makeshift underground bunker forever. In a pinch, this DIY fallout shelter would be better than an above-ground building, an expert said.In the event of nuclear war, the ultra-rich can hide away in their luxury bunkers that cost anywhere from $35,000 to $14 million. But what about the rest of us?Turns out, if a nuclear attack is imminent, you can build your own DIY fallout shelter for relatively cheap.You would just need a couple of days' time, some equipment,...

If you’re looking for a reason the world will suddenly end, it’s not hard to find one—especially if your job is to convince people they need to buy things to prepare for the apocalypse. “World War III, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Joe Biden—you know, everything that’s messed up in the world,” Ron Hubbard, the CEO of Atlas Survival Shelters, told me. His Texas-based company sells bunkers with bulletproof doors and concrete walls to people willing to shell out several thousand—and up to millions—of dollars for peace of mind about potential catastrophic events. Lately, interest in his underground bunkers has...

Bombed out buildings, colorfully-clad Africans going about their day.

Newsweek reports the ten best-selling beers in America last year were Bud Light, Coors Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite, Corona Extra, Michelob Ultra, Modelo Especial, Natural Light, Busch Light, and Busch, forgetting one. Newsweek left one out — Yuengling – for a reason. They backed Donald Trump in 2016.

The nation's largest grid operator is warning it may face a major coming shortfall in electric generating capacity as utilities retire more and more traditional fossil fuel power plants. It's a challenge facing grid operators across the country as power generators mothball coal and natural gas-fired plants for various reasons, such as reducing high maintenance and regulatory compliance costs or cutting greenhouse gas emissions. ... PJM Interconnection, which manages grid operations across 13 states and the District of Columbia, published new analysis Friday showing retirements outpacing new additions in the coming years that could leave its service area short of...

Following yet another failure of government control of transportation -- the FAA system debacle -- Pete Buttigieg has been soundly thrashed again for his incompetence. The FAA failure is only one of many fiascos over the past year laid at the feet of the erstwhile secretary of Transportation. Recall when he and his “husband” were on paternity leave for nearly two months while the maritime shipping supply chain crisis was going on last fall. Next, he was AWOL during the railroad strike negotiations and really played no role in brokering a deal. As a matter of fact, he was on...

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday that will impose stricter emissions standards on new heavy-duty vehicles, a regulation that will significantly raise operating costs for truckers, experts and industry representatives told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The costs associated with this are also a concern because these are costs that not only the industry will bear … prices will go up for everybody,” Texas Trucking Association President John Esparza told the DCNF. “It’s an overreach that is indicative of this administration’s tendency to set aside balance to achieve the goals of activists that they are politically aligned with,”...

California’s electricity woes result from man-made climate policies, not from climate change.. ... Solar and wind power have rapidly expanded thanks to rich government subsidies along with the state’s renewables mandate. These have made it harder for baseload gas and nuclear generators that run around the clock to make money. Many have shut down, and the result is that the state often lacks sufficient power when the sun goes down. ... The state must therefore rely on imports from other states ... But these imports are becoming less dependable since California’s neighbors are also losing base-load generators owing to their...

There’s an election hack built before the 2020 election that can instantaneously swap the bubbles on your ballot. The “filled in” bubble of your candidate is moved to the hackers preferred candidate, and swapped out with that empty bubble. The change is made before the “ballot Image” is stored to the election server, and before it’s tabulated. By using the voter’s own marking style & penmanship, these changes are undetectable to the human eye. Here’s the scenario. Using a blue pen you fill in the “Trump” bubble on a ballot. Election officials insert this ballot into a tabulator. Those pixels...

U.S. inflation reached 9.1% in June, its highest rate in nearly 41 years. The consumer-price index’s reading for June was higher than May’s annual rate of 8.6% that led Fed officials to shift to a faster pace of interest rate increases. Stock futures turned negative after the release of the data. Investors are closely watching the data for clues about the outlook for central-bank policy and the wider economy. .....

In yet another tragic mass shooting, Salvador Ramos, 18, slaughtered 19 innocent children and two much-loved teachers at Robb Elementary school, in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday before being killed in a shoot out with a Border Patrol officer and local law enforcement. It is the second deadliest shooting in US history after the infamous Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 - which saw 26 people killed - and has once again left people asking how someone could commit such a heinous crime. As the country tries to make sense of the tragedy, stories about Ramos are beginning to emerge from those...

Two suicide attacks were carried out outside the crowded Kabul airport on Thursday evening. At least 12 United States service members were killed and 15 others were wounded. According to local reports, the death toll is at least 90 with over 200 wounded. The Islamic State wing known as ‘ISIS-K is believed to be responsible for the attacks. The first bomb was detonated near the airport’s Abbey Gate and the other near the Baron Hotel. Hours later, witnesses reported a third blast elsewhere in the city. A video that was sent to us a few moments ago shows a really...

U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that’s prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.” A spokesperson for U.S. Central Command declined to comment. The issue came up during a classified briefing...

Governments don't know which planes their evacuated citizens are on, the Dutch foreign minister says. "Because of the chaos at the airport, we do not at this moment have a clear picture of which aeroplane our own people are on, or the citizens of other European countries or Nato allies, or of Afghani personnel - no country does," Sigrid Kaag says. "We know that there are at this moment more than 700 Dutch nationals still in Afghanistan... and we have to bring them back." Most Dutch diplomatic staff were evacuated on Sunday, but the ambassador and a small replacement team...

The End of the Long MarchThe army and the police have not capitulated to Wokeism—yet. Remember those halcyon days when our biggest concerns were Howard Zinn textbooks and mainstream media bias? The left is long past that. Victory begets victory, and they feel no pressing need to shore up their wins. Now they’re gunning to control the guns—and not necessarily in the way you think.There are only two institutions left for the left to conquer—institutions filled with the backward, white supremacist, irredeemable troglodytes that liberal arts undergraduates must be psychologically and emotionally strengthened to confront when they go home every...

The new domestic “War on Terror,” kicked off by the riot on Jan. 6, has prompted several web giants to unveil predecessors to what effectively could become a soft social credit system by the end of this decade. Relying on an indirect hand from D.C., our social betters in corporate America will attempt to force the most profound changes our society has seen during the internet era. China’s social credit system is a combination of government and business surveillance that gives citizens a “score” that can restrict the ability of individuals to take actions — such as purchasing plane tickets,...