Free Republic

In comments given to the National Interest, former Trump National Security Advisor Robert C. O'Brien explained that the U.S. Air Force needs 300-400 B-21 Raider stealth bombers considering the growing threat from China's rising military might.

What is funny – not funny ha-ha, but funny, ironic – is the timing of the resurrected Covid alarm. The new alarms coincide quite nicely with a highly contentious and tenuous election. Jack Posobiec, tweeted this morning, “Amazing how Covid is back just as Trump is up in the polls. What are the odds!” What a perfect distraction from any drama in the White House around the Biden family’s alleged misdeeds. No doubt, Trump’s failures in handling the Covid crisis early on coupled with, of course, no mention of what he did get right, will be highlighted. It’s almost as...

The New York Times claimed that while a continued campaign in 2024 would be legal, it would be extraordinary. Clearly, they haven’t been paying much attention over the past seven years. Trump has evaded two impeachment efforts, been exonerated from any wrongdoing in the Russian collusion hoax, survived a myriad of political and personal scandals, and still come out on top. Extraordinary is what Donald J. Trump does. If there is anyone who could pull off a presidential win from jail, it would be him.

Tucker Carlson Tells 19FortyFive He’s Still Employed By Fox: Tucker Carlson might not have a show on Fox News any longer. However, he told 19FortyFive that he was not fired. Until a week ago, Carlson had the most-watched show on cable news. “I’m still employed by Fox,” Carlson said in a text message to 19FortyFive. Carlson, however, did not go into detail why he believes his show was cancelled.

According to two sources with the cable news network that spoke to 19FortyFive, Laura Ingraham has the inside track to replace Carlson at 8 pm. While nothing is definitive right now, according to those sources, she is viewed as the best choice at the moment.

AOC Needs to GO: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is a Marxist revolutionary masquerading as a “defender” of “our democracy”. Of course, AOC’s definition of “democracy” is not inclusive at all. It is highly restrictive. Democracy, according to AOC and her fellow Democrats, is reserved only for the anointed few who believe in the same insanity that she (and her donors) do. That is why AOC’s recent tirades against the Supreme Court are so troubling. Up until recently, AOC could be ignored as an ignorant backbencher in Congress who got the perks of having a safe seat in Congress with no...

AChinese moon base sounds like the punchline of a bad conspiracy theory. But Yang Mengfei—a member of the China Aerospace and Technology Corporation (CASC)—sees it as an ambitious goal within reach of the People’s Republic of China. Despite this posturing, China is lightyears away from a moon base.

Last month, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, accepted an appointment to serve as a professor at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. The staunch critic of former President Donald Trump was defeated in the Republican primary last year by pro-Trump candidate Harriet Hageman. Liz Cheney had previously suggested that she would consider a presidential run in 2024 – likely as much to ensure Trump couldn’t win as actually to become president. However, it appears those plans could be put on hold.

There is One Issue that Could Transform the 2024 Race – President Joe Biden is up for reelection and his only real hope is to go up against a GOP nominee that’s as damaged as he is. If Biden must go up against anyone other than former President Donald J. Trump in 2024, he will likely lose. At least that’s according to some new polls that were released this last week—and these polls are giving the Democratic Party’s powerbrokers real heartburn. Because the closer that we move toward the election, the harder it will be for the Democrats to find...

Ukraine is burning through ammunition for 155mm howitzers quickly and it is leaving the United States in a bind, according to a new report by think tank CSIS. It could take up to five years for the industrial base to produce enough rounds to replenish American stocks. It is not just cannon shells. Javelin and Stinger missiles could take six to eight years to normalize for the U.S. inventory.

Election denialism runs rampant in the U.S. Some deniers claim all the ballots weren’t counted. “Once we have that full and accurate account of the ballots casted, then we will know who our next president is and our country can move forward.” Others have said that they should delay conceding a lost race. “[He] should not concede under any circumstances, because I think this is going to drag out, and eventually I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch.” And, “I did win my election. I just didn’t get to have the job.” And “We were...

Perhaps as many as 90% of China’s 1.41 billion people will come down with COVID-19, said Feng Zijian, former deputy chief of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to Bloomberg News. Feng predicts 60% of the population will be infected in the first wave.

Now all eyes are on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He is also coming off a big reelection win in a state that has become a symbol of his party’s governance nationwide. He and Newsom were putting themselves in position to run for president while respecting the frontrunner status of former President Donald Trump and Biden, respectively. Though weakened by the midterms, Trump has already announced he is running for president again in 2024. Biden was strengthened by them, and while a final decision is still forthcoming, he appears to be leaning heavily in favor of seeking a second term.

Disney Announced Hiring Freeze and Layoffs as Cost-Cutting Measure. Why?: Disney Resorts may be known as the “Happiest Place on Earth,” while Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is the “Most Magical Place On Earth.” However, the magic could soon disappear for workers while many others might not have much to be all that happy about as the Mouse House announced plans to institute a targeted hiring freeze, along with some job cuts.

We have extensively discussed China’s fifth-generation fighter – the J-20 Mighty Dragon, which is now based at all regional theater commands in China to deploy in times of war quickly. It has radar-evading characteristics allowing it to join the exclusive club of stealth fighters to challenge F-22s and F-35s. China seems to be pumping out more J-20 models each month. Now Beijing’s air force is raising the stakes with its sixth-generation fighter on display at the Zhuhai Airshow. This is again to match the planned American Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter. When it looks like the United States Air Force...

If there’s a clear lesson to come out of Tuesday night’s bizarre midterm election, it’s that Republicans can no longer be content with defensive victories or defensive politics. To win political power and do what must be done to save the country, Republicans will have to go on offense, present a compelling vision for the future, and engage culture war issues like abortion and critical race theory without apologies. When they do that, they win. But it stands in stark contrast to the perennial advice of Beltway GOP consultants, who think it best to avoid major culture war issues like...

The ‘Foxconn Great Escape’: Workers Flee China’s ‘iPhone City’: Hundreds and perhaps thousands of workers fled a Chinese manufacturing complex that accounts for 85% of iPhone assembly capacity. The mass migration, which began this weekend, called into question that country’s COVID-control measures and, more broadly, its reliability as a part of global supply chains. “Something snapped over the weekend,” Bloomberg News reports. Employees suddenly fled the Zhengzhou plant of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., better known as Foxconn. Videos show, in what is now called the “Foxconn Great Escape” or the “iPhone Long March,” workers scrambling over high chain...

Is Report of U.S. Military Weaknesses Silly and Dangerous or Spot-On and Alarming?: According to Politico, an anonymous defense official claims Pentagon leaders are “none too pleased” that The Heritage Foundation’s latest Index of U.S. Military Strength has characterized American hard power as “weak.” The unnamed source also said that Heritage’s scoring is “silly and dangerous,” in part because it is “based on the outdated requirement that the military be able to fight two wars simultaneously,” a metric changed by the Obama administration and maintained by both the Trump and Biden teams.

As crime abounds in major cities and voters continue to cite violence as a top concern , liberals may have a new strategy: deny it exists. Democratic St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones tried this recently after the personal finance website WalletHub declared her city the most dangerous in the United States.

It should now be crystal clear why Democrat John Fetterman refused to take part in more than a single debate with his Republican Senate rival, Mehmet Oz, and why Fetterman insisted on pushing that debate to just two weeks before Election Day—after at least 500,000 Pennsylvania voters had already voted. Last night’s debate was an unmitigated disaster. A disaster for Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor—who appeared confused and could barely manage a coherent sentence, let alone a complete paragraph.