Free Republic

Seventy-five years ago, on December 7, 1941, the American Navy suffered the worst defeat in its history when a force led by six Japanese fleet carriers launched a surprise attack at the battleships at Pearl Harbor. Two of the eight battleships, Arizona and Oklahoma, were destroyed, and the other six were knocked out of action for many months. The Army Air Corps fields were attacked with great loss, and other smaller naval vessels were attacked as well. The American carriers were at sea. Had those carriers been at Pearl Harbor, the whole course of the Pacific War would have been...

To watch Barack Obama's pathetic final non-victory lap around the world this past week, one can't help but recall his stomach-churning "Apologize for America Tour" at the start of his administration. You'll recall that in April 2009, he went to Europe, which we sacrificed tens of thousands of American lives to liberate 70-plus years ago, and informed Europeans that America "has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive" of Europe. Last week, Mr. Obama could not resist the urge to dis his country once again, telling the "global community," again from a foreign shore, that in the age of the...

Anybody remember Merrick Garland? Yeah… he was that guy nominated by Barack Obama to fill the empty Supreme Court seat. You may have thought that the issue was dead in the water, particularly with a Republican president on the way in, but there was actually a court case pending which sought to force the Senate to vote on his confirmation. As it turns out, that was met with the same level of success as Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid. (Washington Post) Merrick Garland’s last, long-shot chance at being confirmed as a Supreme Court justice has now vanished: A federal judge on...

If executive-branch agencies like the EPA and HHS are tempted to sneak some new rules into the record during the lame-duck period, House Republicans have a warning for them. A letter from all current committee chairs tell Obama administration officials that any nonsense will get punished at budget time, and high-ranking officials had better expect to spend a lot of time testifying on C-SPAN: Newly empowered House Republicans on Tuesday laid down the gauntlet to the outgoing Obama administration: DonÂ’t finalize any pending rules and regulations you think you can slip through before you leave office.In a letter to hundreds...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I tell you what I would do, and I would have already done it, but since it isn't done already, here's what I would do. I'd call Obama and I'd call Hillary, and I'd say, "You're gonna shut this stuff down. You're gonna stop it right now. It's your people doing this. And if you don't shut it down, I'm going to, and I'm gonna call every law enforcement department all over this country where these riots are taking place, and I'm gonna tell 'em I got their backs after I'm inaugurated." You believe the hypocrisy here?...

The American people have roundly rejected a third Obama term and legacy of deplorable policies that were too often imposed via executive edicts, with minimal attempts to work with Congress or the states. This election shows that hard-working Americans do not want their country and its constitutional, energy and economic systems “fundamentally transformed.” They want America to be great and exceptional again. They want all people to live under the same laws and have the same opportunities, rights and responsibilities for making their lives, families, communities and nation better than they found them. We the People also made it...

Here is what eight years of President Obama's "post-racial" reign have wrought. The weekend before Election Day, Hillary Clinton grinned from ear to ear at a Cleveland rally while reciting a verse from Jay-Z's remix of Young Jeezy's "My President is Black." As the rapper and his Black Lives Matter-promoting wife, Beyonce, beamed on stage nearby, pandersuit-clad Clinton twanged with a stilted accent: "Remember, Jay memorably said: 'Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could walk, and Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama could run, and Barack Obama ran so all the children could fly.'" This would be comical if not...

Barack Obama took a break from interfering in FBI investigations today to interfere with reality on ObamaCare. Speaking at a rally in Miami for Hillary Clinton, the president scoffed at Republican promises to repeal ObamaCare, and then insisted that most consumers won’t see premium increases in the exchanges at all. Mediate has the sound bite of that claim, but Obama’s string of nonsense should be read in context for full appreciation of his talents. Scalp micturation level … peak Lebowski, man: Obama - Only ‘ A Handful of People ’ Are Seeing Obamacare Premiums Go Up - 11/3/16 Can I...

One of the most repellent aspects of the 2016 presidential election has been a phenomenon that has its home in leftwing tactics but that has now emerged on the Right in addition to the Left. More precisely, it has revolved around the adoption by precincts of the #NeverTrump Right of tactics usually associated with the Left. The main feature of that tactic deploys a twofold effort at character assassination. The first step is the transformation of political disagreement into a species of heresy. The second step involves the thundering repudiation of the newly minted heretics, who are to be...

One of the damaging aspects of our American culture has been and continues to be the introduction of the infamous little plastic trinket known as the “participation trophy.” At some point in time perhaps too many parents had been reading books from Dr. Spock, and decided the best way to enhance the self-esteem of young kids was to give them something for just being there. So all of a sudden, it was decided that at certain sporting events for our kids that no scores would be kept, that tryouts were unfair, and everyone would get a trophy. We all remember...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "Obama Flaunts Erection to Female Reporters." That happened on his campaign plane. You haven't heard about this? Yeah, back 2008, I think during the campaign. Obama stood up, bunch of female reporters on his campaign plane, with an erection. They got all excited. They all huddled around to see it. I'm dead serious. I've got the story. Hell, who knows what's true anymore. resident Obama SHOWING OFF His ERECTION On Plane To Giggling FEMALE Reporters(VIDEO)!!!! But I've got the story. Nobody's out there denying it that, yeah, Obama was giving the female reporters and the flight attendants...

In taking that $915 million loss in 1995, and carrying it forward to shelter future income, Donald Trump did nothing wrong. By both his family and his business, he did everything right. In a famous 1947 dissent, Judge Learned Hand wrote: "[T]here is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. ... Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant."...

New York magazine published an interview with President Obama Sunday night which is really Obama recounting some of the high profile political arguments of his tenure. One of the arguments which gets a lot of space is Obamacare. Here’s a sample picking up from the moment Scott Brown won a special election which ended Democrats’ 60 vote majority in the Senate: The most important phone call I made after that was to Nancy Pelosi, because the question I posed to her and to Harry Reid was, “Are you guys still game? Because if you guys are still game, we’ll find...

As we prepare to enter into the presidential transition period there is one pressing question on the mind of some government employees: will I stay or will I go? (With all due apologies to The Clash.) For most federal workers the change in management won’t have much effect. They are hired through normal channels and have powerful unions to ensure they stay there for as long as they like. But a second class of government employees consists of those who are appointed by the current administration. They generally don’t enjoy the same level of protection and are often replaced when...

Leaked audio of Secretary of State John Kerry reveals he argued for the use of force in Syria and is frustrated that the U.S. can’t do more there. From CNN: Kerry’s comments came at a meeting that took place at the Dutch Mission to the United Nations on the sidelines the UN General Assembly, where Kerry was going from session to session in a frenzied effort to resuscitate a ceasefire that seemed poised to collapse.“I think you’re looking at three people, four people in the administration. I lost the argument. I’ve argued for the use of force. I’m the guy...

Back in the 1960s, as large numbers of black students were entering a certain Ivy League university for the first time, someone asked a chemistry professor -- off the record -- what his response to them was. He said, "I give them all A's and B's. To hell with them." Since many of those students were admitted with lower academic qualifications than other students, he knew that honest grades in a tough subject like chemistry could lead to lots of failing grades, and that in turn would lead to lots of time-wasting hassles -- not just from the students, but...

Has the Black Lives Matter movement (or at least some of its prominent protesters) incited violence against police officers, leading to the tragic series of ambush attacks on law enforcement we’ve seen this year? If your answer is a flat “no” in this case I have to wonder where you’re getting your news. While some protests remain peaceful and law abiding (or at least only illegal in terms of blocking highways), others have featured calls for violence… a call which can easily be interpreted as having been answered as recently as last night. But assigning blame in the public square...

What will my son be taught about Barack Obama? At two years old, he wonÂ’t remember the Obama years, but heÂ’s most definitely going to be taught about them outside the home one day. Liberal bias in schools is well known, and one can only imagine just how slanted curricula will be about the 44th president. When I was in school, I can remember being taught whoppers like: the Second Amendment only applies to militias and/or muskets, the Founders wanted to keep religion separate from the public square, southern Dixiecrats all became Republicans, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt ended the Great...

In case you missed it, Louisiana is underwater and currently experiencing the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Before Sandy, the worst natural disaster was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Thirteen people in Louisiana are dead, thousands are displaced and nearly 90,000 people have registered for federal disaster aid. From the Red Cross: The devastating flooding in Louisiana has forced thousands of people from their homes with just the few things they could take with them. The American Red Cross is there, providing food, shelter and relief supplies to those affected by the largest natural disaster to hit the United...

Between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the broadcast networks of NBC, ABC, and CBS presented several reports on the “massive” and “historic” flooding devastating Louisiana, even comparing storm damage to that suffered during Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina. However, the one thing missing from the coverage was a single mention of the President of the United States, Barack Obama. On Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt proclaimed: “Now to the flooding disaster still impacting tens of thousands of people in the south. That massive tropical system that devastated Louisiana is now bringing new flash flood watches to Texas. This...