Free Republic

Internal turmoil is roiling the Michigan GOP as it looks to retake a key 2024 battleground that’s shown signs of moving away from President Biden. A Decision Desk HQ/The Hill average of polls out of the Great Lakes State shows former President Trump several points ahead of Biden after the Democrat flipped Michigan blue in the 2020 election. Concerns are also growing that the state’s sizable Arab American population won’t turn out for Biden amid anger over the war in Gaza. But the Michigan GOP is facing its own setbacks. Republicans there voted this month to oust the controversial Kristina...

Jeff Roe, a top strategist for the main super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, announced his resignation from the group late Saturday — the latest in a string of departures from the organization.The pro-DeSantis group, Never Back Down, has been enveloped in turmoil in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, it fired three of its top officials, including the super PAC’s chief executive officer. The board chairman, former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, also left, as did the organization’s president, Chris Jankowski.Republican strategist Phil Cox, a longtime DeSantis ally and adviser, has stepped in to help steer the PAC in...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had only moments earlier departed a Saturday celebration marking his completion of a 99-county tour of Iowa – a feat he has hyped for months Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting the Republican’s White House bid, abruptly let go three key senior staffers that evening, including an interim CEO who had just been installed nine days earlier. The sudden departures sent shockwaves throughout DeSantis’ political operation, from Tallahassee to Des Moines. The next day, he presented himself as a focused and disciplined candidate, never mentioning the behind-the-scenes political strife. In a statement to CNN, deputy...

Joe Biden is facing a significant internal revolt against his administration's stance on the Israel-Hamas war, insiders have said - reflected in nationwide unease at the conflict, and his dismal polls. The president has been determined to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel following the Hamas terror attack of October 7, which killed 1,200 people. But he warned Israel's leaders in private and in public not to repeat America's mistakes post 9/11, and be blinded by rage and a desire for revenge. With 15,000 Gazans killed in seven weeks of bombardment, many inside the Biden administration feel that the White House should...

Chris Jankowski, the CEO of the PAC that has been footing the bill for much of DeSantis' bus travel around key battleground states, stepped down Wednesday, days after a group of other DeSantis allies announced the creation of a separate PAC, called Fight Right Inc. The move follows an account of vicious infighting between factions of DeSantis backers, NBC reported. Jeff Roe, the leading consultant for Never Back Down, reportedly got into a 'heated' argument with DeSantis advisor Scott Wagner during a budget meeting. a source told the network, in a stunning account of how the two men 'nearly came...

The nation will be pushed toward “social and economic turmoil,” if a reelected President Donald Trump tries to enforce Congress’s border laws, the New York Times claimed on November 11. “Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans,” declared the headline for an article about President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to enforce border policies if he is elected.

Historian Peter Turchin predicted the turbulence of 2020. He tells me why, in 2024, America will reach a ‘break point.’ Peter Turchin is not like most historians. For starters, he has an unusual background as an evolutionary biologist studying lemmings and mice. He says that analyzing the complexities of the natural world has allowed him to understand the most complex system of all: human society. He has pioneered a field of history that he calls cliodynamics that applies hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of historical data points to a mathematical model in order to understand the present and to predict...

The White House is reportedly considering a major shake-up after the midterm elections in November, which are expected to not go well for the Democrats. The report suggests that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese are among those likely to get the boot in what Axios describes as a “broad reorganization of President Biden’s economic team.”p>This appears to be related to a broader shake-up planned by White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who, it was reported last week, is having former administration officials Jeff Zients and Natalie Quillian compile lists of candidates for Cabinet...

NBC News kicked this off early Tuesday morning following the long Memorial Day weekend with a report headlined, "Inside a Biden White House adrift," telling readers, "Amid a rolling series of calamities and sinking approval ratings, the president’s feeling lately is that he just can’t catch a break — and that angst is rippling through his party." "Faced with a worsening political predicament, President Joe Biden is pressing aides for a more compelling message and a sharper strategy while bristling at how they’ve tried to stifle the plain-speaking persona that has long been one of his most potent assets," NBC...

Today marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant events in world history. On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon announced he was “closing the gold window,” thus ending the U.S. dollar’s convertibility to gold. This ended the post-World War II Bretton Woods monetary system where the world operated on a gold-backed U.S. dollar with other world currencies pegged to the dollar. It also began the new era of fiat currency and sowed the seeds of the next great financial crisis. Fiat currency is not backed by commodities such as gold or silver. Its only value comes from the...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blamed the “absurdly cruel” U.S. embargo of Cuba on Thursday for the nation’s turmoil, singling out “Trump-era restrictions” on the socialist state as driving the unrest. In her first formal statement responding to the protests that have rocked Havana’s Communist dictatorship, the Bronx Congresswoman says she backed the protesters. In a statement posted on Twitter, she then laid out where the blame should be laid: She said the repressive Havana regime was not the only cause of the island nation’s troubles: We also must name the U.S. contribution to Cuban suffering: our sixty-year-old embargo. Last month,...

Alcohol sales are through the roof, especially when considering most bars and restaurants—which make up about 22 percent of total alcohol sales—are closed or severely limited. Marijuana sales—where it is legal, and probably where it isn’t—are also off the charts. One would have to guess all illicit drugs are experiencing similar sales explosions. Gun and ammo sales are setting unheard of records. Suicides are way up and the mental health of children seems to be at a record low. Trust in almost any institution is at historic lows—with governmental institutions generally residing in the cellar. The country is split on...

The latter Middle Ages were a time of great political and cultural turmoil in the West. One of the greatest upheavals occurred within the Christian Church of that era. It was called the "Avignon Papacy." The Encyclopedia Britannica describes it this way: Distressed by political factionalism in Rome ... Pope Clement V moved the papal capital to Avignon (France). During this time, the Sacred College of Cardinals began to gain a stronger role in the government of the church. A vast reorganization and centralization of administrative offices and other agencies was effected[.] ... After Pope Gregory XI reestablished the papal...

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is...

A controversial Chinese billionaire in self-imposed exile blasted on Thursday what he said was a small clique of corrupt "kleptocrats" running China - as he also warned of a wave of Chinese spies being dispatched to the United States in recent months. "What they're doing is against humanity," said Guo Wengui, during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, two days after a previously scheduled appearance at a think tank in the same city was postponed due to what he called heavy pressure from the Chinese government. "What the US ought to do is take action, instead of...

There will be war in the streets of America. Things have been engineered that way. The scenarios are many, the issues are complex. The current anger from the left, who are violently protesting against President Trump, is just one aspect of it. But the Pentagon and the U.S. national security structure is increasingly looking towards the shifting demographics around the globe – people have moved from rural areas, and shifted into cities. Where ever conflict stirs, there will be a need for military and SWAT response to the call. Entire cities will be locked down; door to door sweeps will...

FULL TITLE: Is civilization heading for a COLLAPSE? Mathematical historian predicts political turmoil will peak in the 2020s A professor of Ecology and Mathematics from the University of Connecticut, Peter Turchin has led the development of a cross-disciplinary subject called 'cliodynamics'. 'Cliodynamics is a new 'transdisciplinary discipline' that treats history as just another science,' Professor Turchin says. He started out using maths to predict human activity from 1500 B.C.E. to 1500 C.E. Then three years ago, using similar models, he began to forecast the future. 'My model indicated that social instability and political violence would peak in the 2020s,' he...

President Barack Obama denied responsibility for any role he might have had in the disagreements roiling the American population during the current election campaign. "Look, the voters elected me as their president," he pointed out. "I was the one with the mandate to lead. It is those who have resisted acquiescence in my leadership who are the source of the divisiveness afflicting the country. Is it the parent who lays down the law that is at fault? Or is is the unruly child who defies the parent that should be held responsible for the disruption and disobedience?" The President blamed...

Remember that vaunted General Motors recovery ushered in by President Obama’s bold bailout program? Well, not so much. In June 2009, GM filed for Obama-managed bankruptcy, costing the taxpayer some $50 billion. The vast majority of that cash was never paid back by GM. In November 2010, GM issued a new initial public offering at a price of $33 per share. Today, GM stock is trading at approximately $19.36, down about 40% from its initial price. And the executive turmoil in the company is reaching fever pitch. Opel, a majority-owned subsidiary of GM, dumped CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke about two weeks...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Minnesota Republicans elected political consultant Pat Shortridge as their new state chair Saturday as the party deals with debts that could total $2 million. Shortridge, a former top aide to former U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, defeated businessman Todd McIntyre and Terry McCall, the party's 2nd District chairman, at a meeting of the party's State Central Committee in St. Cloud. Shortridge won on the first ballot, with 66.5 percent of the vote. McCall received 30 percent and McIntyre 3 percent. "It's about reinvigorating and galvanizing our activists . to restore their confidence in what we're doing," Shortridge told the...