Free Republic

@SenRandPaul Bomb first, ask questions “never” makes zero constitutional sense and even less practical sense. I still have questions about the survivors from Ecuador and Colombia. Either they’re drug traffickers, in which case they should be tried and locked up, or they’re not. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that people who value the Constitution and due process are skeptical.

🚨 JUST IN: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accuses President Trump of doing what CHINA and IRAN do when he "executes" narco-terrorists "I would call them extrajudicial killings. This is akin to what China does, what Iran does with drug dealers -- they summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So it's WRONG."

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill have raised concerns about President Trump’s expanding war against drug cartels carried out without consultation or authorization by Congress, and are pressing for more information and involvement in a campaign whose legal basis remains murky. Most in the group have not expressed explicit opposition to the strikes that have been carried out so far against boats in the Caribbean Sea and, this week, expanded to the Pacific. The vast majority of Republicans have enthusiastically rallied behind them, and this month, all but two of them voted to block a measure that would...

President Donald Trump pulled the trigger on sanctions that European Union leaders and American neocons have long urged him to impose on Russia. An analyst for the Ron Paul Institute said this makes it “Trump’s war now.”The new round of sanctions are part of a one-two economic punch to Russia’s major source of revenue — energy. The EU also leveled sanctions. Making matters worse for the Russians are the British Storm Shadow cruise missile that hit a Russian rocket fuel plant earlier this week, indicating a recent upgrade in Ukrainian military capabilities and permissions for their use.The United States had...

@Holden_Culotta Tucker Carlson: “What the hell is going on that Thomas Massie is a target, but Lindsey Graham has a Trump endorsement?” “Of all the members of Congress that I know, Massie is the most principled.” “If Lindsay Graham continues to get elected, then the whole MAGA thing is totally fake.” “I don’t think there are many people in the country who live out Donald Trump’s own stated principles more precisely than Thomas Massie does.” “His personal life … is like one of the most impressive things I’ve ever heard.” “He is self-reliant in the most American sense.” “This is...

When House Speaker Mike Johnson (R–La.) lashed out at last weekend's "No Kings" rallies soon to arrive on Washington's National Mall, he reached for an old conservative refrain: "They hate capitalism. They hate our free enterprise system." I am sure he's correct about some of the protesters. But the message rings hollow coming from a party leader that stands by as President Donald Trump does precisely what Johnson rightly decries: substituting political control for market choice and ruling by executive order. Indeed, what began as a populist revolt against so-called elites has become a program of state ownership, price fixing...

Oil prices jumped and energy companies helped the FTSE 100 to a record high after Donald Trump announced new sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers.Brent crude increased by 5.2% to $65.83 a barrel – a two-week high – after the news of the fresh restrictions on Rosneft and Lukoil, as the US president ramps up pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.The jump in oil price also boosted shares in the energy companies Shell and BP by about 3%, which in turn helped to drive the FTSE 100 to a record high of 9,594.82.

Sen. Rand Paul on Sunday questioned the wisdom and legality of President Donald Trump’s policies toward Venezuela and suspected drug dealers coming from its coast. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the Kentucky Republican again raised concerns about the legality of the Trump administration’s strikes on boats that it claims are carrying drug traffickers, as well as the president’s statement that the United States might conduct direct attacks on Venezuela’s territory. “When you kill someone, you should know, if you’re not at war, not in a declared war, you really need to know someone’s name at least,” Paul said. “You...

Monday was a festive day, with the whole world seemingly celebrating the dawn of peace in the Middle East and hailing President Trump for bringing it about. The president himself, while speaking about the release of the hostages in his speech to the Knesset, promised a bright new world unencumbered by past hatred and animosities: “After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families. Twenty-eight more precious loved ones are coming home at last to rest in this sacred soil for all of time. And after so many years...

In 1914, Europe stumbled into a war no one wanted and few understood;a war that destroyed empires and redefined civilization.Today, Washington risks repeating that mistake, this time with nuclear weapons on the table. Through arrogance, ignorance, or incompetence, the United States is drifting toward direct confrontation with Russia, the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, with consequences that could be apocalyptic.President Trump last week said he has “sort of” made a decision about supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine or NATO allies.He wants to learn more about “what they are doing with them” before making a final decision. His goal is to...

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he may travel to Egypt this weekend as his negotiators seek to seal a Gaza hostages-for-ceasefire deal. Trump said at the White House that a deal is "very close," and that he may depart Saturday for the region. He spoke after talking to his team about the talks. Negotiators have been meeting in Egypt to try to complete an agreement. As Trump held an event, Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered the room and handed Trump a note. Trump read it and then described what the note said.

@RepThomasMassie The government is shutdown, but the House refuses to go back in session. Why are we in recess? Because the day we go back into session, I have 218 votes for the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. @SpeakerJohnson doesn’t want that to be the news.

Trump is clearly listening to the NEOCONS, and he may believe their BS that Russia’s economy is collapsing, so Russia can be defeated in three days, as Kinzinger was claiming. Mark Rubio is a Neocon. I believe Trump hired him as a compromise to the Neocons. But he is taking us into World War III in slow motion. Trump is listening to the wrong people, and he had better look unbiased at why Putin is being put into a precarious position. He has insulted the dignity of Russia and reduced it to a meaningless 4th-world country. If Putin is replaced...

Some two weeks before the 2nd anniversary of October 7, the UN, the UK, France, Australia, Canada and other failed radical governments rallied to commemorate the massacres, kidnappings and rapes by giving the Islamic terrorists responsible for it their own ‘state’. Along with a High Holidays gift to the Jews celebrating their new year. The invention of a ‘Palestinian’ state is the capstone to the Big Lie that this is a war between Israel and some smaller population in Gaza or the West Bank rather than a regional conflict between Muslims and Jews, as part of a global conflict between...

Trump’s memo to Congress grants him wartime powers to strike, kill, and detain cartel fighters without trial ============================================================== AMERICA'S military is preparing to seize ports and airfields in Venezuela, it's reported - as Donald Trump declared a full-scale war on drug cartels. The President stunned Washington by formally declaring the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the Latin American “terrorist organisations”. The move, revealed in a secret memo to Congress, gives Trump sweeping wartime powers to strike, kill and detain cartel fighters without trial. And it comes as the Pentagon quietly builds a force big enough to grab...

The Trump Department of War is drawing up plans for kinetic operations against drug traffickers inside Venezuela, according to a thinly sourced NBC News story. Those strikes could begin in a "matter of weeks." The strikes would be primarily carried out by drones and would target drug cartel members and leadership, as well as drug labs.Putting aside the brittleness of the story, there are some considerations that move it from the "totally freakin unlikely" category to "slightly plausible." First, a disclaimer. The U.S. military has plans for just about any contingency. This dates back to at least the 1930s, when...

The United States is planning military strikes in Venezuela against drug cartels in the coming weeks. Donald Trump is yet to approve the actions which are in response to President Nicolas Maduro, whom the U.S. sees as illegitimate, not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from getting out of Venezuela. It would largely consist of drone strikes against leaders and members of gangs, as well as drug labs, NBC News reports. They follow a recent lethal strike on a vessel allegedly affiliated with a terrorist organization 'trafficking illicit narcotics'. The attack killed 'three male narcoterrorists' took place in the US...

President Donald Trump said the U.S. military on Monday again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel, and hinted that the military targeting of cartels could be further expanded. "The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.," Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the strike. "These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests." The strike was carried out nearly two weeks after another military...

Newsdump Alert: Israeli Offensive Rolls On In Gaza City... In a previous life your host with his three thousand song collection playing it back to... "And then secondly there are those that want instant sex instead of true love The pregnancies of now 13, 14 to 17 year-old girls is now an epidemic. Don't blame the girls blame the boy too. We make it one sided all the time" Dr. Billy Graham... 37 Trillion Dollars In The Hole There Is A "Government Shutdown Deadline" coming up... Dad got a birthday card from me today I picked it up at the...

Trump said tonight New Orleans is the next... The Wall Street Journal reported today that the US Health and Human Services Department... Police in Serbia firing tear gas and stun grenades at anti-government protesters... In the high-profile immigration case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia... 475 people, most of them South Koreans, arrested in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant under... "Or as they say in English 'B*****it'" That is a top Russian official's assessment... CNN reports that US President...weighing his options to attack Venezuela...warplanes buzzing a US warship for the second time...Trump spoke of Venezuelan warplanes being 'shot down"... A...