Free Republic

ABC’s late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel has made Trump bashing a central part of his TV persona. Now he has publicly admitted that his decision has cost him “half of my fans — maybe more than that.” In an interview this week with the Naked Lunch podcast, Jimmy Kimmel portrayed himself as a rebel, claiming he defied network bosses who hinted that trashing tens of millions of potential viewers might not be a good idea.

After all of the talk about sticking it out in Ukraine for as long as it takes and Mad Vlad threatening to unleash some nukes, could Russia actually be ready to negotiate with Zelensky and the west to seek an end to the invasion of Ukraine? We probably shouldn’t get our hopes up too high just yet, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signaled that there might be an offer on the table over the weekend. Considering how bombastic Lavrov generally is, this would indicate a serious change in his attitude if it turns out to be more than just...

The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine acknowledged on Tuesday that his troops were under broad pressure and faced hard choices, as the Russian-appointed governor of occupied Kherson province announced a partial evacuation. "The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Sergei Surovikin, an air force general named this month to command Russia's invasion forces, told the state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel. -snip- Russian forces in Kherson have been driven back by 20-30 km (13-20 miles) in the last few weeks and are at risk of being pinned against the right...

Moscow planned to celebrated the annexation of huge swathes of Eastern Ukraine Friday but Putin’s party was wrecked by a lightning counter-attack that may have trapped thousands of his men in a key city supposedly now part of Russia. Ukrainian sources claimed that the strategic city of Lyman, which has served as a Russian military hub in Donetsk, has been encircled and supply lines cut. “Lyman! The operation to encircle the Russian group is at the stage of completion,” said Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko on Friday. The claim could not be independently verified but, if confirmed, it would be one...

Asked about the potential impact of Europe's unfolding cost of living and energy crises on support for Ukraine, Von der Leyen said supporting Ukraine "comes at a high cost, but our freedom, the international peace order, and democracy, is priceless."Supporting Ukraine comes at a high cost, but freedom is "priceless," European Commission chief Urszula Von der Leyen said on Thursday amid soaring inflation and high energy prices in Europe.The EU's sanctions on Russia are having a deep and visible impact, European Commission President Urszula Von der Leyen told Reuters at an interview in Kyiv, shortly after she met Ukraine's President...

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Thursday said Russia’s strategic objectives in its attack on Ukraine have “been defeated.” “The war is not over, but so far the Russian strategic objectives have been defeated,” Milley said at a news conference alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Filatiev published “Zov" on the Russian social network VK in early August. The human rights organization Gulagu helped him leave the country a few weeks later, moving him from one place to another until finally helping him reach France. He spent two days inside the Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting to be approved for entry. In Russia, he said, “I understood that no lawyer could defend me,” he said, a muscle in his jaw twitching. On his wrist, he wore a silver bracelet adorned with a crucifix. Filatiev said Russia's army is degrading by the day, unable to replace the...

LOS ANGELES, California — The Los Angeles Times reports that billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso is now losing the race for mayor to Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) because of the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The Times reports that while political momentum favored Caruso’s challenge in the spring, he lost in the June primary because of Bass’s support from the party machine, and political changes — including abortion — have boosted her prospects since then:

Rogue security agents from Russia's feared FSB spy agency are feared to be behind the car bombing attack which killed the daughter of Vladimir Putin's Rasputin-esque 'guru' advisor, amid mounting suspicions the Russian president's inner circle is turning on him. There are growing fears in Moscow that the attack on Putin loyalist Alexander Dugin's daughter, Darya Dugina, on Saturday night was conducted by Putin's own loyal agents amid rumours they want to oust the Russian leader from power. Frustration and anger is mounting over Russia's war in Ukraine, with one of Putin's former commanders even branding the president a 'clown'...

Russia’s economy shrank by 4 percent year-on-year over the second quarter, according to data published by Russian federal statistics service Rosstat. The plunge, though significant in absolute terms, was not as drastic as expected by Russian and some Western observers. “June data suggests the contraction in the Russian economy seems to have bottomed out as the situation in some industries is stabilizing,” Sergey Konygin, an economist at Sinara Investment Bank, told Reuters. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban claimed in a speech last month that the European Union’s sanctions strategy against Russia has failed. “A new strategy is needed which should...

Vladimir Putin has said Russia and North Korea will expand bilateral relations. Putin told the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, that the two countries would "expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts", the Pyongyang's state news agency KCNA reported on Monday. Separately, the Russian ambassador in Kabul, Dmitry Zhirnov, has said working with the Taliban is necessary where it "suits our interests", the Guardian reported.

Beyond the damage in Ukraine, the war also has significant casualties in the rest of Europe as the continent is losing its most competitive energy supplies, compromising the region’s manufacturing edge and accelerating an inflation wave that through higher energy costs will severely affect the wellbeing of its population this coming winter.

The biggest loser is Ukraine itself. Towns and villages have been destroyed, thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed or wounded, four million civilians have become refugees, six million are internally displaced, the country’s farmland and manufacturing plant have been devastated, and its economy has been wrecked. The damage and destruction inflicted on Ukrainian infrastructure is estimated at $60 billion at this point.Having stoked the fires of war, Biden and Johnson are also losers. Despite his engagement in Ukraine’s war effort, Biden’s overall approval rating has sunk to 38 per cent with 53 per cent disapproving of his performance....

Cafes and restaurants are open and largely busy. It was in one of the latter that I met a senior Ukrainian government official who had contacted me, expressing approval for something I had said in the international media"You know, don't you, that this time next year, a Russian soldier could be sitting right where you are," he said after a brusque introduction. "We are losing this war." He is right. There were the great victories at Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkhiv. But with setbacks in Donetsk and Luhansk, the appalling realization is sinking in that this is likely to be a...

Oof...

Former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday that the U.S. is on the “precipice of losing our democracy.” “We are standing on the precipice of losing our democracy, and everything that everybody else cares about then goes out the window,” said Clinton to interviewer Edward Luce.

-snip- In recent weeks, Russia has focused its drive on Donbas after pulling back from a failed advance on Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions. "Yes, people are being killed," Lavrov said. "But the operation is taking so much time primarily because Russian soldiers taking part are under strict orders categorically to avoid attacks and strikes on civilian infrastructure." -snip- Lavrov also denied speculation that President Vladimir Putin was ill, saying there were no signs pointing to any ailment. Putin's health and private life are taboo subjects in Russia, and are almost never discussed in public. Answering a question, Russia's top...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that Americans did not get “we are losing our rights on a regular basis.” Behar said, “I want to say something. I think there’s a larger issue at stake right now. I think Americans are in denial exactly about what this Republican Party is planning to do. They would like to overturn voting rights. They would like to overturn gay rights. They are in the process of overturning women’s rights.

Former CIA Director David Petraeus on Sunday weighed in on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Petraeus told John Catsimatidis, host of New York WABC 770 AM radio’s “The Cats Roundtable,” that “everybody involved” was “losing” as a result of the war. He pointed to Russia, which he said was heading toward a recession because the United States was “strangling their economy.”

(CNN)In the immediate aftermath of the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, CNN conducted a poll. Among the questions it asked was this one: "In general, how confident are you that elections in America today reflect the will of the people?"