FOR FREE PEOPLE

Let's Get to a Million Free Pressers!

FOR FREE PEOPLE

Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates with girlfriend Taylor Swift after his team won the AFC Championship. (Photo by Patrick Smith via Getty Images)

TGIF: Taylor vs. Trump

Three Squad scandals. A Disney trigger warning. The GOP turns on Tay-Tay. Heterosexuals should probably give up on sex. Plus, Biden’s hard hat, Pelosi’s faux pas, and more.

Hello and welcome back to TGIF. 

→ America’s military might will respond at 2 p.m. at these coordinates: This week, an Iran-backed militia launched a drone strike against America’s soldiers and killed three—William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, GA; Kennedy Sanders, 24, of Waycross, GA; and Breonna Moffett, 23, of Savannah, GA. First, the American response was to make it clear that it was kind of our fault: there were two drones coming in, and one was our friendly drone and one was Iran’s murder drone, and in the confusion we let the murder drone kill instead of taking down the murder drone. See, Iran didn’t mean it, it’s our bad, really. Biden took a few days to mull what to do and then the administration released their response: “U.S. officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets—including Iranian personnel and facilities—inside Iraq and Syria.”

The key to military strategy is to announce it loudly and clearly a week or two ahead of time, that’s what it said in The Art of War, I’m pretty sure. Soon, several empty buildings are about to be shown what America is all about. Within days, a random drone left on the desert floor is going to see into the blinking red light of a state-of-the-art weapon and know why we don’t have free healthcare. Several strong, terrorist-affiliated long-eared hedgehogs are going to be obliterated. Iran will never strike again! Mission—I can’t believe we’re back here—Accomplished. 

→ Biden pivots on the border: In what CNN calls a “stunning political shift,” Biden this week said that if he could, he would “shut down” the U.S.-Mexico border right now. But can’t he? I have no idea. This comes after Border Patrol, at the end of last week, finally released December’s immigration numbers (they held the numbers late, finally releasing them on a Friday afternoon, a classic strategy to try to get as little coverage as possible). And why would it be good to hide them? Because the numbers are shocking. Border Patrol reported 302,034 migrant encounters in December, which breaks the previous record set in September. Among those were 19 people on the FBI terror watch list. Nineteen! Enough to play a basketball tournament.

Maintaining The Free
Press is Expensive!

To support independent journalism, and unlock all of our investigative stories and provocative commentary about the world as it actually is, subscribe below.

Subscriber Benefits:

  • Unlimited articles including weekly columns
  • Early access to live events
  • Access to the comments section

Already have an account? Sign in

our Comments

Use common sense here: disagree, debate, but don't be a .

the fp logo
comment bg

Welcome to The FP Community!

Our comments are an editorial product for our readers to have smart, thoughtful conversations and debates — the sort we need more of in America today. The sort of debate we love.   

We have standards in our comments section just as we do in our journalism. If you’re being a jerk, we might delete that one. And if you’re being a jerk for a long time, we might remove you from the comments section. 

Common Sense was our original name, so please use some when posting. Here are some guidelines:

  • We have a simple rule for all Free Press staff: act online the way you act in real life. We think that’s a good rule for everyone.
  • We drop an occasional F-bomb ourselves, but try to keep your profanities in check. We’re proud to have Free Press readers of every age, and we want to model good behavior for them. (Hello to Intern Julia!)
  • Speaking of obscenities, don’t hurl them at each other. Harassment, threats, and derogatory comments that derail productive conversation are a hard no.
  • Criticizing and wrestling with what you read here is great. Our rule of thumb is that smart people debate ideas, dumb people debate identity. So keep it classy. 
  • Don’t spam, solicit, or advertise here. Submit your recommendations to tips@thefp.com if you really think our audience needs to hear about it.
Close Guidelines

Latest