Free Republic

The Biden administration laid out an ambitious new goal for the US: produce 20% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips by the end of the decade. It currently makes 0% of the so-called leading edge logic chips that are considerably more powerful than older-generation semiconductors, making them crucial for everything from mobile phones to AI to quantum computing. The legislation allows the White House to spend $50 billion in taxpayer dollars — $39 billion specifically earmarked for manufacturing — to try and help reignite American manufacturing in the years ahead.

The New York Times‘ Angelo Fichera on Wednesday published several extraordinary fact checks on President Joe Biden’s slippery talking points about his economic record. While Biden, 81, is an “elderly man with a poor memory,” according to the special counsel, his cogent staff likely carefully crafted the scripted talking points the Times fact-checked. The fact check comes just days after a feud surfaced between the White House and the paper. Biden aides were “extremely upset” with the outlet for reporting analysis about the president’s age and memory.

Mr. Biden’s signature accomplishment, according to the historians, was evicting Donald J. Trump from the Oval Office.President Biden has not had a lot of fun perusing polls lately. He has a lower approval rating than every president going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower at this stage of their tenures, and he trails former President Donald J. Trump in a fall rematch. But Mr. Biden can take solace from one survey in which he is way out in front of Mr. Trump.A new poll of historians coming out on Presidents’ Day weekend ranks Mr. Biden as the 14th-best president in American...

… That naysaying has gained much greater currency in recent years as California’s population has contracted for the first time in more than a century. The “exodus” has become an industry, stoking real estate markets from Nevada to Tennessee, fanning the red-versus-blue political flames and launching a thousand what-went-wrong analyses. The latest insult — or bracing reality check? — came last week in a Los Angeles Times poll that found 50% of adults nationwide believe California is in decline. (Bummer, man.) Nearly half the Republicans surveyed said the state is “not really American.” Whatever that means. L.A. Times columnists Mark...

MSNBC host Joy Reid lamented that black Americans have not received sufficient reparations for “literally, physically” building this country, believing that former President Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure is the best they will get. Reid issued her comments during an interview on Salon Talks with writer Dean Obeidallah wherein she said that black people “literally, physically, built this country” and therefore deserve much more than a two-term black president.

<p>Ever since I first learned to read, I have been fascinated with writing. I have always loved how talented writers can whisk us away to a time in history, worlds that exist only in our minds, or even to current events happening far away. It feels like magic.</p>

Yet another Democratic Party thought leader has demanded that Joe Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential race. Ezra Klein, the co-founder of Vox and now a columnist and podcast host at The New York Times, said he understood that many liberals would be angry at him for calling on Biden to go but that it was necessary. "I want to say this clearly: I like Biden. I think he’s been a good president. I think he is a good president. I don’t like having this conversation. And I know a lot of liberals, a lot of Democrats are going...

Who knew that prosecutors caught committing perjury could be disqualified from a court case they lied about? Apparently, just about everyone except for Jeffrey Toobin formerly a CNN legal analyst who for some reason appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 on Thursday to give his hands-on analysis of the Fulton County, Georgia hearing to determine if District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade committed perjury when they swore their romantic relationship only began after Wade entered the case. As you can see, Toobin was outraged at the very idea that they could be disqualified from the RICO case which included...

In St. Johns County, on the Atlantic shore of Northeast Florida, more than 55% of public school teachers paid their union dues this last year. Despite that, nearly 3,500 teachers are facing the threat of having their union representation revoked. At the same time, in Southwest Florida, only 16% of law enforcement officers of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office paid union dues last year. Their union is under absolutely no threat of being decertified. A year after Governor DeSantis signed into law a sweeping anti-union bill requiring most public sector unions to boost the rate of members paying dues or...

Political commentator Scott Jennings said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that former President Donald Trump is an “&-+$#@$” for asking where his competitor, Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Nikki Haley’s (R-SC) husband was when he was serving overseas in the U.S. military. At a campaign rally, Trump said, “Where’s her husband? Oh, he’s away. He’s away. What happened to her husband? what happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone.”

Biden is losing to Trump by five points in the new NBC poll. Biden is getting smoked in almost every category, including having the necessary mental and physical health to be president, not, one assumes, an incidental matter when you are seeking to be president again. These numbers represent such a debacle, I understand why so many smart people assume that Democrats will switch out Biden — because he represents an insane bet for their party. I don’t think that’s going to happen, though. They’ve got to, as I mentioned the other day, hope the economy keeps improving and that...

Trump claimed that investors are betting he will win the 2024 presidential election...Trump cited no evidence to back up the claim..."THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET," Trump claimed in an all-caps Truth social post, "BECAUSE MY POLLS AGAINST BIDEN ARE SO GOOD THAT INVESTORS ARE PROJECTING THAT I WILL WIN..."

On Friday, District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a new order in the Donald Trump classified documents case adding to the mountain of evidence that she is firmly in the former president’s pocket. Trump appointed Cannon in 2020 and the Senate confirmed her appointment in the days after he lost the 2020 election. It’s deeply offensive to the rule of law for judges to bend the law to benefit those who put them on the bench. Sadly, Cannon does just that.

White House officials are concerned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could initiate a full-blown war against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon in order to save his own political career, according to a Sunday report. “If the Gaza war ends tomorrow, Netanyahu’s political career will end with it, incentivizing him to broaden the conflict,” anonymous US officials told The Washington Post. Netanyahu has dipped sharply in opinion polls since the war with Hamas began, with the public evidently attributing to him a significant portion of the blame for the failures that enabled the terror group’s October 7 massacres. “The prime...

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Wednesday he would not vote for former President Donald Trump in November, breaking his debate pledge with the Republican National Committee (RNC), called the “Beat Biden Pledge.” The broken pledge and refusal to vote for the likely GOP presidential nominee appears to highlight Christie’s thirst to remain politically relevant, considering: Just two percent support Christie’s GOP primary bid, Fox News polling shows. He maintains a negative net approval rating (-55), according to the Wall Street Journal. “No,” Christie replied when MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle asked if he would vote for Trump, breaking his pledge with...

The Associated Press’s latest foreign donor wants to transform journalists into "community activists on climate change." The AP doesn’t seem interested in publicizing that. It’s the latest left-wing charity to fund the Associated Press, which says it is read by four billion people each day. Philanthropies that support packing the Supreme Court, defunding the police, and other left-wing initiatives have contributed millions of dollars to the AP in recent years, the Free Beacon reported. While the AP says it maintains editorial independence from its deep-pocketed donors, its climate reporting reflects many of the KR Foundation’s core beliefs. A recent AP...

Former President Donald Trump refused in a prime time town hall to rule out abusing power to go after his critics – saying he he wouldn't do it 'except for Day One' – when given multiple opportunities to forswear plans for vengeance or a power grab. 'To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law to use the government to go after people,' Hannity asked him. 'You mean like they’re using right now?' Trump responded, without answering the question directly. (other subjects) You are promising America tonight...

Wait! Aren't Republicans the ones who inappropriately drag religion into politics? And surely no Democrat would ever perform a religious ritual as protection against the mention of a Republican's name? And yet . . . On Thursday, Nicolle Wallace's MSNBC show, with Alicia Menendez as substitute host, rolled tape of Biden crossing himself after he mentioned the name of Lauren Boebert. Menendez blithely said, without comment, that Biden "made the sign of the Cross at Boebert's name." Think MSNBC would be so nonchalant if a prominent Republican made the sign of the Cross at the mention of a Democrat's name?Get...

Doonesbury Comic Strip for November 26, 2023

Anti-Israel protests at American universities have made headlines in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. And almost simultaneously, many conservative critics — including GOP presidential candidates — have used those protests as an opportunity to ramp up their assault on higher education, eagerly yoking them to their long-standing accusations of “liberal indoctrination.” Eliminationist chants, partisan DEI officers, angry mobs hey-hey, ho-ho-ing their support for terrorists — in terms of Republican's favorite straw men, the “woke,” liberal campus of 2023 has them all! Institutions of higher education, conservatives charge, are complicit in fostering an atmosphere of intimidation and even violence...