Free Republic

Russia cannot defeat Ukraine or the West - and will likely lose - if the West mobilizes its resources to resist the Kremlin. The West’s existing and latent capability dwarfs that of Russia. The combined gross domestic product (GDP) of NATO countries, non-NATO European Union states, and our Asian allies is over $63 trillion.[1] The Russian GDP is on the close order of $1.9 trillion.[2] Iran and North Korea add little in terms of materiel support. China is enabling Russia, but it is not mobilized on behalf of Russia and is unlikely to do so.[3] If we lean in and...

The war in Ukraine is primarily a war for control of people, not land. Russian President Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine twice not mainly because he desires Ukraine’s land, but rather because he seeks to control its people. Putin’s project, explicitly articulated in the 2021 article he published justifying the 2022 full-scale invasion, is the destruction of Ukraine’s distinctive political, social, linguistic, and religious identity.[1] Putin seeks to make real his false ideological conviction that Ukrainians are simply confused Russians with an invented identity, language, and history that a small, Western-backed minority is seeking to impose on the majority of...

I have stayed away from this subject for eight years; however, everyone in/around U.S. politics knows the Washington Post, owned by Big Tech Amazon, is effectively the PR firm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). No one inside the DC beltway does not understand this basic truth.... Therefore, when the husband of State Dept official Victoria Nuland, a man named Robert Kagan, writes an op-ed in the CIA newsletter, effectively calling for President Trump to receive the Julius Caesar treatment, the non-subtle message is for the CIA to repeat their Kennedy performance and kill President Trump. As alarming as this...

A famous neoconservative says Donald Trump will become a dictator like Julius Caesar if he wins the 2024 election. In the lengthy Washington Post piece, Robert Kagan lays out his argument that Trump is well on his way to becoming the GOP nominee for president and stands a good chance of defeating Joe Biden in November. He says Trump's second term would see him become the most powerful president in US history, after defeating two impeachments and coming through four indictments, which have only served to turbocharge GOP support.

The Iraq war debacle, the relative (to Bush) restraint of the Obama administration, and the 2016 anti-interventionist campaign of Donald Trump may have seemingly discredited the neo-conservative movement and its personalities, but they have come roaring back. This new stage in American foreign policy could be characterized as Kaganism: neither Democrat or Republican, but rather a non-partisan 21st century crusade for “liberalism.” Donald Kagan, the patriarch of Kaganism, followed a similar intellectual trajectory to his colleagues Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz: Marxist academics who transformed into rabid Reaganoid Cold Warriors in response to the Soviet Union’s support for Arab nationalism...

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan appeared to take umbrage at Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s majority opinion in a copyright case involving Andy Warhol and Prince, telling readers in her dissent that she would trust their “good judgment” rather than counter her colleague’s “fistfuls of comeback footnotes.” The shot at Kagan’s fellow liberal came in a lengthy second footnote of her dissent, which several Supreme Court observers found “interesting” and “noteworthy.” Kagan and Chief Justice John Roberts were the only justices that didn’t rule in favor of music photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s claim that the the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts...

Ward was one of several would-be Trump electors whom the committee subpoenaed earlier in the year. Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday temporarily blocked a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking the phone records of Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. Kagan responded to a request from Ward to stay the enforcement of the subpoena, per NBC News. The justice is responsible for emergency applications from that state and the committee has until Friday to respond to her ruling. "If Dr. Ward's telephone and text message...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday temporarily blocked the House of Representatives committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol from obtaining Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward's phone records while the court further assesses the dispute. Ward had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after lower courts declined to bar telephone carrier T-Mobile from complying with a subpoena from the Democratic-led committee seeking three months of her call records. Kagan issued an order effectively putting the litigation on hold and preventing enforcement of the subpoena pending a further order by her or the full court. Kagan,...

Liberal Justice Elena Kagan on Friday expressed hope that her colleagues on the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court could get back to finding "common ground," saying it risked looking political by continuing to overturn legal precedents. Speaking at an event at the University of Pennsylvania, Kagan did not explicitly reference the Supreme Court's decision in June to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. But Kagan, who dissented from that decision powered by the court's conservative majority, argued that judges and justices should be "humble" and respect past precedents interpreting laws and rights that people build...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Monday cautioned that courts look political and forfeit legitimacy when they needlessly overturn precedent and decide more than they have to. Speaking less than three months after a five-justice conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade's constitutional guarantee of abortion access, Kagan said the public's view of the court can be damaged especially when changes in its membership lead to big changes in the law. She stressed that she was not talking about any particular decision or even a string of rulings with which she disagreed. Still, her remarks were similar to...

Harvard law professor and constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe offered a spirited endorsement of Elena Kagan in a 2009 memo that noted the law school dean had the ability to persuade “a bunch of prima donnas to see things her way.” The memo (PDF), leaked to conservative blogger Ed Whelan, bluntly advised against the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to fill the seat of retiring Justice David H. Souter, a recommendation ignored by President Obama. The New York Times Caucus blog, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post all have stories. Tribe wrote that Kagan would be better able to persuade...

In Supreme Court arguments on the OSHA COVID Vaccination Mandate case, the “Wise Latina” revealed at least Sixth Degree Stupidity for all to see. One should not casually suggest that a graduate of law school who has ascended through the ranks to the highest Court in the land is stupid. But that is the inescapable conclusion her performance requires. For those who missed the demonstration of her upward failure, we must present the details. But first, we must look at the question the Supreme Court is supposedly trying to address. Justice Kavanaugh granted the emergency appeal in NFIB v OSHA,...

[2:47 video clip] "Correspondent Lucas Tomlinson discusses accusations against Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Sonia Sotomayor for spreading misinformation on ‘Fox Report.’"

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Wednesday that abortion is “part of the fabric of women’s existence in this country” as she tried to defend the 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Heath Orgnization case. Kagan took a firm line with Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart, who appeared during oral arguments at the Court to defend Mississippi’s controversial 2018 law banning abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, before 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The US is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves.... The warning signs may be obscured by the distractions of politics, the pandemic, the economy and global crises, and by wishful thinking and denial. But about these things there should be no doubt: First, Trump will be the Rep. candidate for president in 2024...He enjoys mammoth leads in the polls; he is...

The Supreme Court split 5-4 on the case Thursday, with Justices Neil Gorsuch Clarence Thomas splitting off from other conservative members of the bench.WASHINGTON (CN) — A convicted felon whose priors included one instance of reckless aggravated assault should not have been given an enhanced sentence after he was later caught with a handgun, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday.“The treatment of reckless offenses as ‘violent felonies’ would impose large sentencing enhancements on individuals (for example, reckless drivers) far afield from the ‘armed career criminals’ ACCA addresses — the kind of offenders who, when armed, could well ‘use [the]...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that up to 400,000 immigrants who gained temporary protected status but came here illegally won't be able to get green cards – with liberal Justice Elana Kagan such status 'does not come with an admission ticket.' The Supreme Court was unanimous in its refusal to let immigrants who have been allowed to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds apply to become permanent residents if they entered the country illegally. it impacts thousands of immigrants who fled to the U.S. following hurricanes and other disasters and who established residency with special protected status. It...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status from seeking “green cards” to remain in the country permanently. The designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status...

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected an illegal immigrant’s attempt to twist immigration law and create a loophole that would allow thousands of illegal immigrants to become lawful permanent residents. Democratic senators and attorneys general advocated for this loophole, but a liberal justice wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court. “Petitioner Jose Santos Sanchez entered this country unlawfully from El Salvador. Years later, because of unsafe living conditions in that country, the Government granted him Temporary Protected Status (TPS), entitling him to stay and work in the United States for as long as those conditions persist. Sanchez now wishes...

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a request from Republicans to stop Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s (D) plan to mail ballots to all registered voters. Kagan, who has jurisdiction over the case based on geography, denied the request without referring the case to the full court. The suit was brought by Joe Lamm of the Ravali County Republican Central Committee and other voters. The GOP-dominated Legislature banned mail-in ballots for general elections, instead allowing only by-request, no-excuse-required “absentee ballots” and in-person voting compatible with Phase 2 safety restrictions in the governor’s COVID-19 reopening plan. But Bullock argued an emergency declaration...