Free Republic

Until the end of April, J.D. Vance's storied career as a self-made Middle-American memoirist, conservative firebrand, and venture capitalist risked sputtering out as a third-place also-ran in Ohio's Republican Senate primary. All of that changed with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a single debate, and the singular resolve of Vance, and also that of former President Donald Trump and his son, to stand against dragging America into yet another war and neocons like Josh Mandel.

Mike Gibbons and Josh Mandel lead the Ohio GOP Senate primary field as Republicans battle for the chance to run for the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman (R), according to a poll released Tuesday. The Fox News poll shows Gibbons, an investment banker, leading the field with 22 percent support among GOP primary voters. Mandel, a former state treasurer, trails just behind with 20 percent, a difference that falls within the survey’s margin of error. “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance is in third with 11 percent, followed by former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken at 9 percent and...

An executive at Peter Thiel’s venture capital fund is running for a US Senate seat with $10 million in backing from his boss. Blake Masters, the 34-year-old chief operating officer at investment firm Thiel Capital and a former protege of the billionaire at Stanford, announced Monday that he is running as a Republican to unseat Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in 2022. In his campaign launch, Masters pledged to “completely end illegal immigration” and fight “indoctrination” in the school system. Masters has never held public office and faces a crowded GOP primary field that includes state Attorney General Mark Brnovich...

In a recent essay for Quillette, Mark Goldblatt outlined the ways in which “scientists, theorists, technicians, entrepreneurs, and even a few kooks are laboring independently toward radical life extension, with an eye on the ultimate prize: the eradication of death.”The eradication, he argues, is not as preposterous as it sounds. One day, in the not so distant future, immortality may very well be achieved. However, one thing is for sure, even if death is eradicated, one thing simply can’t be removed from the human equation - tribalism.Mortality, Goldblatt argues, “is the defining feature of human existence.” Although this is very...

Director Ron Howard apparently had a problem with the rather inconvenient politics of J.D. Vance's memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. His solution was to simply sanitize all politics out of the film version which according to most critics left it a rather lame movie. It will premiere on Netflix on November 24, but don't expect anything even close to, say, John Ford's Grapes of Wrath.Even the Hollywood Reporter took note of this in their Monday review of the film by Rebecca Keegan in "'Hillbilly Elegy': Caught Between Hollywood and a Hard Place."

The coronavirus is bringing about a strange revival of neighborhood life, which has been atrophying for a half-century. We should pay attention. Something unexpected has happened to neighborhoods across the country in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns and business closures: they’re coming to life.With schools and restaurants closed, and a huge swath of the workforce stuck at home either working remotely or not working at all, usually quiet and empty neighborhoods are suddenly bustling. Patterns of life and work that have become entrenched in American society over the past half-decade—kids in school and both parents away at jobs during...