Free Republic

Students attending American public schools are struggling. Test scores from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released this year, indicate that 33% of 8th graders—a greater percentage than ever before—are reading at the “below basic” level.Additionally, only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or above in math, down from 24% in 2019, and only 35% are proficient in reading—the lowest score since NAEP began in 1969—down from 37% in 2019. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared to all previous assessments.Parents across the country, especially in big cities, have...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to...

For nearly a century, America’s military strength has come largely through self-reliance. We not only made the ships, airplanes and tanks, our country supplied the parts and materials for these complex systems. But a lot has changed in recent times.Unfortunately, our military has increasingly relied on sourcing parts globally -- including from possibly unreliable places like China. It’s a disastrous side effect of globalization.For example, while modern jet engines may typically include between 30,000 and 50,000 parts, ensuring they are “China-free” has proven to be incredibly difficult. We’ve already seen deliveries of F-35s delayed over this issue, revealing that supply...

UPDATE 8:41 CST: President Trump just addressed the nation from Mar-A Lago🚨@POTUS: “I can report tonight that based on the best available information, the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was FLOWN IN by the Biden Administration in in September 2021, on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.” pic.twitter.com/KjLVnwEt7f— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 27, 2025..."Nobody knew who was coming in, knew anything about it! And his status was extended by legislation signed by Biden”He said the suspect had...

We're learning more about the suspect in the terrorist attack that took place earlier in Washington, D.C., that sent two members of the West Virginia National Guard to the hospital, where they are listed as being in critical condition.The attack, which investigators are describing as a targeted ambush, reportedly took place just blocks from the White House, around 2:15 pm Eastern time.As we previously reported, D.C. Metro Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll told reporters during a D.C. presser that "At approximately 2:15 this afternoon, members of the National Guard were on high visibility patrols in the area of...

A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department's cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, finding that the prosecutor overseeing them was unlawfully appointed to her role. That prosecutor is Lindsey Halligan, a 36-year-old former insurance attorney who served as one of President Trump's personal lawyers after his first term and joined his second administration as a White House aide.Trump appointed Halligan as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in late September, the day after her predecessor, Erik Siebert, resigned under pressure from the president to bring charges against Comey and...

Fool's Ball, Week Pigskin Pickem Thread, Week 13 Your home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

Trust is like a bridge built over years but burned in moments. For generations, American parents have walked their children across that bridge each morning, delivering them into the care of teachers and administrators who promised to guard them like their own. But what happens when the guardians become the very danger parents sought to protect their children from? Across Colorado, that bridge is collapsing. School districts that once partnered with families in raising children have transformed into ideological fortresses, operating in shadows and silence. Parents send permission slips for field trips, imagining museums and monuments. They pack lunches and...

Democrats: Trump is a nazi and threat to democracy! *leftist tries to kiII him* Democrats: Charlie Kirk is a nazi and threat to democracy! *leftist kiIIs him* Democrats: The National Guard are nazis and threat to democracy! *leftist tries to kiII them* It’s so obvious what they’re doing.

Remarks, read as thinly veiled critique of government, come amid public spat with Defense Minister Israel Katz over latter's selective promotion of senior IDF officers. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that Israel needs 'courageous, transformative' leadership that does not 'evade' responsibility, in remarks that seemed to be a thinly veiled criticism of the government. The comments came amid a public spat with Defense Minister Israel Katz over the military October 7 investigations and senior appointments in the Israel Defense Forces. They were delivered during a ceremony commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the death of Israel's...

Mayorkas claims repeatedly for almost three minutes that all the Afghans were vetted before being brought to America. At the 2:45 mark he is reminded that he is under oath and he then goes from claiming that they were all vetted to saying that he has no idea if any were vetted.Grok Summary of AI-Generated Video TranscriptIn a Senate hearing, a senator questioned Alejandro Mayorkas about the vetting process during the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation. The senator repeatedly asked how many of the evacuees were vetted and screened by U.S. officials before boarding planes (specifically C-17s) to the United States. Mayorkas...

Former President George W. Bush on Monday urged President Joe Biden to “cut the red tape” and allow for the swift evacuation of Afghan refugees following the Taliban’s takeover of the country. Responding to the fall of Afghanistan’s US-backed government, Bush said the Afghans “at the greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation.” The costly US-led war in Afghanistan began just shy of 20 years ago after the 9/11 attack while Bush was president. Bush, in his Monday statement, noted Biden has promised to evacuate the Afghans who assisted Americans...

Today, his prediction came true. It’s the same playbook as the phony Ukraine impeachment. They’re trying it again! With @JackPosobiecGrok Summary of AI-Generated Video TranscriptJack Posobiec predicted on a show that, following a certain video, opponents would repeat the 2019 Ukraine impeachment playbook by leaking a classified Trump-related phone call to derail his administration. Less than 24 hours later, Bloomberg published a leaked transcript of a phone call between Steve Witkoff (Trump’s special envoy) and Vladimir Putin’s senior foreign policy advisor. The leak is being framed by critics as a scandal involving Witkoff allegedly advising Russia on how to pressure...

At least one Republican senator has said that the U.S. government cannot afford a Trump administration proposal to send out $2,000 tariff-derived rebate payments. “If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Monday. Bartiromo then told him: “It sounds like you would vote ‘no’ in terms of $2,000 checks going to individuals.” He added that “we can’t afford it” and that he wishes the U.S. government was “in a position to return the...

United States District Court Judge Cameron M. Currie, sitting by designation in the Eastern District of Virginia, yesterday dismissed the federal indictments against former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James. At the crux of the court order is the judge’s finding that President Donald J. Trump’s administration unlawfully appointed Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. Attorney who signed the Comey and James indictments. Taking the now familiar TDS cheap shot, the court order opens with a description of the U.S. Attorney as “a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience.” Attorney General Pamela J....

[Catholic Caucus] Tennessee bishop limits celebration of Latin Mass to small chapel once a monthAfter banning the Latin Mass at all parishes in the Diocese of Knoxville, Bishop Mark Beckman will now allow a monthly TLM in a retreat center chapel, which is likely too small to accommodate the faithful. Featured ImageThe Diocese of Knoxville under Bishop Mark Beckman will limit the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) to just one chapel at a retreat center once a month after previously announcing the suppression of all parish TLMs in the diocese, the bishop announced in a letter on Tuesday.In...

President Donald Trump says the alleged shooter of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., entered the United States from Afghanistan in 2021 and asks for Americans to pray for the victims.

As the US Navy remains primed for action in the Southern Caribbean, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro prepares for what could be an American attempt to remove him. And as President Trump alternates between calling Maduro on the phone and authorizing air strikes, a bevy of misinformation is being peddled by public figures with an agenda. There are so many claims and counter-claims on the air waves right now that it’s difficult to separate fact from fiction. A sizable chunk of this disinformation is of course being sold by Maduro himself, a man who has learned from his predecessor and mentor,...

Like them we should ask: ‘What is this tool for and what does it make us become?’ As new technology, AI and the internet take over 21st-century life, I suggest looking to the Amish for guidance. Far from being the Luddites most folk assume, the Amish undertake a guided policy of technological discernment.When a new practice or device emerges into the world, the elders often gather to test it out over a set period of time. The entire process rests upon this deceptively simple inquiry – “What is this tool for and what does it make us become?” All...

President Trump is standing behind his most trusted negotiator, Steve Witkoff, following the leak of a phone call with a senior Russian official, which Ukraine’s backers have criticized for what they see as the special envoy’s attempts to sabotage American support for Kyiv and broker a deal favorable to Moscow.It’s the latest twist over a chaotic week in which the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes dealmaking between Russia and Ukraine has spurred both optimism and questions about progress toward peace.This includes the leak last week of a 28-point plan for ending Russia’s war that was heavily criticized as hewing to Moscow’s maximalist...