Free Republic

As Hamas goes, so with it go many of the following related Western pretensions. The Passions of 9/11, Redux It has been 22 years since we saw crowds throughout the Middle East celebrating the murder of 3,000 civilians—and since newspapers had daily “idiot watch” notices of American intellectuals defending radical Islamist mass murderers. And now the madness is back again, and we are witnessing the recrudescence of normalizing radical Islamic terrorists abroad. I suppose the theory is that no one in America cares much about radical Islamists foaming at the mouth, whether abroad or here. And the result is that...

The main lesson for Israel from the hideous Hamas attacks suffered over the weekend is a simple one: Terrorists can’t be managed. For decades, Israel worked with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) by combining incentives on the one hand with controlled military responses on the other. Major attacks, including rockets from Gaza last May, prompted retaliation, usually with air power, and a subsequent cease-fire, often brokered by Egypt. When Iranian-sponsored militias set up weaponry in the West Bank, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted on-the-ground operations in Jenin and Nablus. In the case of Hezbollah, Israel allowed the US...

Oil companies are expressing concerns over President Joe Biden's proposed restrictions on oil and gas leases -- particularly about how these regulations will impact smaller oil lease operators and ultimately consumers. CEO of Arena Energy, LLC Mike Minarovic testified before the Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy & Supply Chains on Thursday where he spoke on behalf of the Gulf Energy Alliance. "There are many examples I could cite today to illustrate the burdensome and unnecessary regulations crushing small businesses operating in the GOM," Minarovic said in his written testimony. "And every single one of those examples must...

Excerpt from agenda of an upcoming webinar: An employee now living and working from home in Indiana would be subject to Indiana wage-hour laws even if the employee used to work in Illinois and the employer is still located in Illinois. Overtime rules, minimum wage rates, and permitted deductions from paychecks, even pay stub requirements are governed by where the employee is physically performing the work. The same applies to garnishments for child support and creditors.

On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN Primetime,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) refused to say whether or not New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) can use a public health emergency declaration to unilaterally change the state’s gun laws, but said “mayors and our governors have the hardest job in the world right now when it comes to gun violence” because “an extremist United States Supreme Court” has prevented them from enacting good policies like completely banning carrying guns. Host Abby Phillip asked, “New Mexico’s Governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, she’s issued this temporary order that bans both open and concealed...

In remarks to the Warren County GOP in Indianola, Iowa, Vivek Ramaswamy took questions from voters.

The Reign of the Woke is starting to totter. The excesses of the tyranny of the tiny trans minority is getting significant pushback, from consumers boycotting woke corporate fellow-travelers like Bud Light and Disney, to parents challenging schools that attempt to usurp their authority over their children. More significant in the long run, some state universities’ governors are rejecting requirements for faculty and scholars to sign loyalty pledges to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ideology. The latest grove of academe to end this noxious practice is the Arizona system comprising five campuses with 142,000 students. In addition, the Foundation for...

President Joe Biden and those in his administration, particularly Vice President Kamala Harris, have been touting “Bidenomics” as their new slogan as they gear up for the 2024 campaign season. For instance, on August 4, Harris declared, “Bidenomics is working… America’s economy is strong and experiencing stable and steady growth… And unlike economic recoveries in the past, this growth is not only being felt on Wall Street. But, more importantly, it is being felt on Main Street, especially by people who start and own small businesses.” A month prior, while in South Carolina, Biden had stated, “Bidenomics is just another...

Gavin Newsom. YECH.I swear. This unctuous, gleamy toothed, malevolent creature just gives me the willies. He reminds me so much of that anti-Christ-like cult leader in “The Stand,” Randall Flagg. All I see is evil personified every time he hits my monitor.How does California re-elect someone like that? Do they all have Stockholm Syndrome?Are they all brainwashed?Or is it a combination of indoctrination and abuse that allows them to countenance such an overlord and his minions.How do they live like this?Amid a surge in crime in Oakland, California, police have advised residents to use air horns to alert neighbors to...

Population Control and Official USG Policy (Jul 25, 2023) referenced NSSM-200 The Kissinger Report (June 8, 1973)Personally, I have been reluctant to wander down the rabbit hole relating to various “depopulation agenda” theories involving the COVID crisis. However, the odd concordance between a possible population reduction objective and the dysfunctional “public health” policies is obvious to all open minded thinkers. These policies include that the biologically engineered SARS-CoV-2 virus, the many “public health” policies, as well as the rushed gene therapy-based COVID “vaccines” and their wide range of associated- but rigorously denied - “serious adverse events” (not the least of...

The gifts the Biden Administration has already given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in just two years have been nothing short of exorbitant -- and often to the detriment of the US.They have included cancelling the China Initiative that was countering CCP espionage on American soil; allowing the CCP spy-balloon to leisurely hover over America's major nuclear and military sites while gathering sensitive information to send back to Beijing in real time; permitting CCP interests (there are no private interests in China) to buy up American farmland -- especially near US military bases -- also with the potential of controlling...

Foreign policy “experts” vocally in favor of Ukraine called on Wednesday for bringing the embattled nation into NATO, which many say would risk a direct NATO-Russia war. Alexander Vindman, who was at the center of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, former Russia ambassador Michael McFaul, former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), and other foreign policy “experts” released an op-ed on Politico Magazine ahead of the NATO summit:

Debt doesn't care about elections. The U.S. government must continue to pay its bills, and as long as current spending trends continue, it must keep borrowing money to do so. But politicians care very much about elections. When it recently became apparent that the government was about to smash its head on the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling established by Congress, thus potentially triggering a catastrophic cash crunch and default on American debt obligations, the political leadership of both parties got right to work figuring out the best way to avoid losing their next election. In the end, the bipartisan deal...

The Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal from a Missouri Christian college seeking to halt a Biden administration policy the college believes may force it to allow biological males in women’s dormitories. Last February, the College of the Ozarks near Branson, Missouri, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) directive. The directive stated HUD would enforce the 1968 Fair Housing Act’s prohibition on sex discrimination as a ban on discrimination because of “gender identity.” College of the Ozarks had previously lost several times in the lower courts after...

“growing hawkish consensus” about China’s “intent and capabilities.” Jeffrey Meiser, an associate political science professor at the University of Portland (Oregon), Renny Babiarz, an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins, and David Mudd, who recently graduated from the University of Portland with English and political science degrees, “see significant evidence that China’s intentions are indeterminate and, in some arenas, neutral or even possibly aligning with U.S. national security interests.” The best strategic approach to China, they conclude, is not engagement or containment, but instead what they term “entanglement.” This article is an example of why most academics should be kept...

Around the country, vaccine policy is on hold while lawmakers recover from a pandemic-policy hangover.The HPV vaccine has been around for almost two decades and could spare thousands of people from developing cervical and oral cancer — so mandating it for schoolchildren once seemed an easy call for Democrats in deep-blue California. But a bill to do just that has been watered down beyond recognition in one of the most liberal states in the U.S., a victim of a homegrown anti-vaccine movement that has become more organized and more successful since the pandemic. Anti-vaccine activists didn’t do it on their...

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Fox News employees are allowed to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex, and permitted to dress in alignment with their preferred gender. They must also be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns in the workplace. These are just a few of the policies outlined in the company handbook, dated January 2021, a copy of which was shared with The Daily Signal. Fox also offers to help employees come up with a “Workplace Transition Plan” to ease their gender transition at work.

The United States has a homelessness problem, but we have an even bigger homelessness-policy problem. It is an issue at the federal level—HUD spends nearly $10 billion annually to create bad incentives that reward destitution—and at the state and local level. This week, two widely divergent state approaches to homelessness were on display. In Oregon, state legislators sought to grant the homeless a right to camp on public property and to sue for up to $1,000 if their tents are disturbed. This may strike some as an extreme example, but it’s unfortunately typical for homeless policy, which is largely controlled...

During an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, White House Council of Economic Advisers member Heather Boushey argued that fiscal policy isn’t too loose because “we have seen those ongoing declines in the inflation rate” and a soft landing is “where we are right now.” She also stated that with the spending plans put into place by the Biden administration, “the money hasn’t started flowing yet, in large part.” Co-host Guy Johnson asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:45] “We have had 500 basis points of hikes on the monetary side and we’ve still got an unemployment rate of 3.4% and it’s...

Nine former employees of Newmont CC&V Mining Corp. filed a lawsuit against the company April 11 in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The suit alleges religious discrimination and retaliation by unlawful termination after the company denied their request to be exempt from taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The nine refused the company mandate to be vaccinated and were terminated. The lawsuit alleges Newmont forced every employee to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs or face termination of employment. “CC&V is aware of a lawsuit filed in federal court by former CC&V employees,” said Katie Blake, sustainability & external...