Free Republic

The right was wrong about virtue-signalingThe question is never “will we virtue-signal?” but “whose virtues will be elevated?”A video of a family with four “transkids” went viral across social media this week. Many conservatives were justifiably appalled and pointed out that the chances of randomly having four children with severe body dysmorphic disorder in the same family are incredibly low. Commenters on the video suggested that the mother must be mentally ill and acting out Munchausen syndrome by proxy. But this demonstrates a serious failure of the right to understand human nature. The mother of those four children was not...

The likelihood of former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard becoming Donald Trump's running mate is rising by the day. In an interview with Jesse Watters over on Fox, Gabbard made no secret of her willingness to serve as Trump's vice presidential nominee if she was asked."You're being considered for a VP slot, is that something you are open to?" Watters asked during "Jesse Watters Primetime.""I would be open to that," she responded. "My mission is to serve our country. I want to be in a position to solve problems."🚨New: Tulsi Gabbard says she is open to being President Trump’s VP in...

One of the basic rules of war is that you always keep two fronts going simultaneously. The first is the obvious battlefield. However, the second is communication. Suppose you DO NOT keep communication open through the back channels. In that case, there is NEVER the possibility of PEACE, and the war then becomes concluded only when one side is obliterated. This is what has taken place, and the demonizing of Putin is HIGHLY dangerous, for it shows there is no intention of peace. You cannot keep calling someone a piece of shit publicly and then expect the people to accept...

The battery will not catch fire or explode in response to punctures or even gunshots, unlike some current batteries that can be unsafe if damaged or exposed to high temperatures, says Chinese startup Betavolt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chinese company Betavolt claims to have developed a battery that could power mobile phones that never need to be charged and drones that can fly forever. Photo: Betavolt.tech ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Chinese startup claims to have developed a new battery that could power smartphones for 50 years without the need for charging. Beijing-based Betavolt said its nuclear battery is the first in the world to realise...

Interim Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 is expected to announce a working group that will consider a policy of institutional neutrality, a move that comes just months after the University became embroiled in controversy over its response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.A formal stance of neutrality, in which Harvard would refrain from making political statements as an institution, would be a marked shift from the University’s current approach to politics. It would also, in theory, help the University avoid the pressure it’s faced in the past to take political positions on contentious issues — such as the...

Lankford’s ‘compromise’ border bill legalizes the invasion... The legislation waters down existing immigration law and provides the president with toothless emergency powers, all while lavishing billions more tax dollars on Ukraine. You’ve got to hand it to Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Mitch McConnell’s other lieutenants in the Senate. They really did manage to solve the illegal immigration crisis. They’re simply going to make the invasion legal. In exchange for us agreeing to an endless flow of illegal immigrants across the southern border, Democrats will get another $60 billion for Ukraine. Some call that bipartisanship, but we call it disenfranchisement...

THE DEATH of Alexei Navalny, Russia’s foremost opposition leader, in a Siberian gulag on February 16th would by itself have served as a shock to Europe. But for leaders gathered at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of defence and security bigwigs, Mr Navalny’s demise was just one of several ominous developments for the continent. On February 17th Ukraine’s army, starved of American ammunition by Congress’s failure to pass a supplemental aid bill, was forced to withdraw from the eastern town of Avdiivka. That handed Vladimir Putin his first military victory in almost a year.The deadlock in Congress reflects...

The far-right social media network Gab now hosts a Hitler chatbot, sparking fears over AI’s ability for online radicalisation. There is no point arguing with Adolf Hitler, who only self-victimises and is, unsurprisingly, a Holocaust denier. This is not the real Hitler risen from the dead, of course, but something equally concerning: an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot version of the fascist dictator responsible for the mass genocide of European Jews throughout World War II. Created by the far-right US-based Gab social network, Gab AI is host to numerous AI chatbot characters, many of which emulate or parody famous historical and modern-day...

I’m finding it hard to single out an event or a piece of news that stands out as the most important of the week. Of course, people who move in different circles may be able to point to something. The horrors continue in Gaza - so much so that I can’t read about them for the moment - need a rest. The Houthis are still not vanquished and the risk of escalation in the Middle East is about the same as last week, in my humble opinion. The Scary Narrative has probably been less successful than the West hoped for...

A very long essay, but crucial to understanding where we are. One would think that by now all these anti-woke conservatives and moderate liberals would have learned at least some of the bitter lessons from the last decade about how political power and cultural change actually work, but I guess not. … They could have recognized by now that this is not a simple political issue with a political solution, but they have not…. No, the Revolution is far from over. [Here are] twenty reasons to get woke and despair. 1. One does not simply walk away from religious beliefs....

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed, “Ukraine is obviously a satellite state of the U.S.” in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson published on Thursday. “Ukraine is obviously a satellite state of the U.S. It is evident,” Putin asserted in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Tuesday. Watch Below (time code — 01:58:15): Putin was responding to a question from Carlson, who asked, “Are you worried that what’s happening in Ukraine could lead to something much larger and much more horrible? And how motivated are you to call the U.S. government and say, ‘Let’s come to terms’?”“I already said that we...

Viral headlines exaggerated and inaccurately described a recent study about a coronavirus in mice.It’s been four years since the COVID-19 virus first began to spread. The U.S. National Intelligence Council assessed that two theories on the virus’s origins are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal or a laboratory-associated incident. Recent alarming headlines of Chinese experiments involving the virus reignited pandemic-era fears online. VERIFY reader Karen asked us on Facebook if a story from the Staten Island Advance, a newspaper local to New York City’s Staten Island, titled “Chinese scientists create COVID-19 strain that is 100% lethal to ‘humanized’ mice,...

Thank you. Lieutenant Governor Davis, Madam Speaker McClinton, Madam President Pro Tem Ward… Leader Pittman, Leader Costa, Leader Bradford, Leader Cutler… Thank you for convening this special session and giving me the honor of addressing you today. While I’m grateful to see the House and the Senate gathered here together, I’m also mindful that one of our colleagues is not able to be with us. Representative Joe Kerwin from Upper Paxton Township is currently 7,000 miles away, on deployment with the Pennsylvania National Guard. To Representative Kerwin and every member of the Pennsylvania National Guard at home and abroad, thank...

There's a lot of science behind the time-honored tip.Whiskey aficionados are known for having strong opinions about, well, most things. They quibble over the concept of terroir in whiskey, turn their nose at bottlings that are chill-filtered, and debate whether age is indicative of quality. The list of contentious whiskey-related subjects is seemingly endless, but one tasting-related topic that divides enthusiasts is whether or not to add water to a glass of whiskey to open it up, and if one decides to do so, where that water should be sourced from, as well as how pure it should be. Before...

Yet another Netflix documentary on the ancient world has proven controversial, this time with the depiction of Alexander the Great as gay. In the opening episode of “Alexander: The Making of a God,” which started airing on Netflix on January 31, Alexander, played by Buck Braithwaite, kisses his friend Hephaestion on the mouth and body, as they engage in an intimate embrace. The portrayal of the ancient Macedonian king as a homosexual has generated angry responses from some viewers who feel that the documentary is distorting history. Meanwhile, The new Netflix series promises to reveal the “extraordinary life of Alexander...

The U.S. Embassy in London released an official statement to cool off this heated debate.We learned back in junior high history class that Americans and Brits have quite the contentious relationship regarding tea. And as of this week, when Michelle Francl, Ph.D., a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, released her new book, she stirred the pot even more — so much so that the U.S. Embassy in London felt it necessary to step in. So what's Francl's proposition that's making waves across the pond? That your cup of tea is missing one very important ingredient that...

Conservatives are losing the "don't be weirdos" contest. One of the main stories of American politics of the last few decades is the wealthy and educated shifting away from the Republican Party and towards the Democrats. Conservative losses among the upper classes have not been balanced out by gains elsewhere. Republicans have lost the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 presidential elections, showing themselves to be broadly unappealing to most Americans while nonetheless staying competitive due to the unusual quirk of us picking our head of state through the electoral college, which gives disproportionate power to rural areas....

The Anti-Democratic Movement Targeted Ralph Nader First. We Should Have Paid More AttentionThe recent ballot access challenges, political investigations, and canceled primaries are just an extension of a phenomenon we should have seen coming twenty years agoIn the summer of 2004 Theresa Amato, campaign manager of presidential candidate Ralph Nader, took out a notebook in preparation for an important phone conference.Her candidate, Nader, had already been subject to an extraordinary — and extraordinarily underreported — campaign of litigious harassment at the hands of the Democratic Party. John Kerry told Nader he had 2,000 lawyers at his disposal and would do...

U.S. lawmakers are calling for military strikes inside Iran in the aftermath of a horrific terror attack that left three U.S. service members dead and dozens wounded. So if the U.S. does hit targets inside Iranian territory, how will the Iranians respond? It is theoretically possible that they could back down, but I doubt it. All of the airstrikes that we have conducted so far against Iranian-backed terror groups in Iraq and Syria have not caused them to back down. And the airstrikes that we have hit the Houthis in Yemen with have not caused them to back down either....

> Extensive and well-funded network of leftist organizations influence the White House, Congress, law enforcement, judiciary, city councils to advance agenda to take out MAGA movement. > "We are witnessing unprecedented actual lawfare and election interference against a presidential candidate. This was gamed out against Trump before he ever declared to run as a plan to subvert his reelection and maintain Biden’s control," says activist Jessico Bowman. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A well-funded and well-connected constellation of leftist organizations led by a group promoted by George Soros and Hillary Clinton is behind the multi-faceted effort to take down Donald Trump ahead of the...