Free Republic

While Charles de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws was an oft-cited source during the federal convention of 1787, his observations weren’t limited to the balance of powers in government. He also touched on the nature of educational systems in republics and despotisms. Parents and educators form our first impressions. They prepare people for civil life in republics and for servitude in despotisms. From previous chapters, Montesquieu had explained the springs, the forces which propel nations. Public Virtue is the propellant in republics, while the bayonet of fear prods despotisms. Education in despotic countries debases the mind. The mind of...

On Saturday, the New York Times editorial board published an article claiming that Trump’s “politicized FBI” has “made Americans less safe.” That’s rich. I’m old enough to remember when the Obama administration and the Biden administration actually did weaponize the FBI against Donald Trump. And I’m pretty sure everyone on the NYT editorial board is, too. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino wrote a scathing response to the article, calling it “precisely why hard-working Americans simply do not trust the media.” Bongino’s tweet, which quickly gained traction online, took direct aim at what he described as a “poorly thought out hit...

Two of the nation’s Ivy League institutions have yet to produce documents related to a congressional tuition price-fixing investigation launched earlier this year. This, according to a subpoena issued by House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University, both of which have been accused of colluding with the nation’s six other Ivy League schools to inflate tuition prices and maximize profits. Citing authority vested by the U.S. Supreme Court, committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the documents requested – regarding communications with other universities – will give lawmakers insight into crafting legislative reforms. Some may...

merica’s kids are anxious, depressed, and falling behind academically. The problem isn’t just lackluster test scores or TikTok addiction. Public education is a system designed to crush kids’ instincts for curiosity and independence, molding them into compliant and uncreative future adults. In this fifth installment of “The Poisoning of the American Mind,” I break down how our public schools have become factory farms for children. From worsening mental health to replacing academic rigor with woke indoctrination, today’s schools don’t just fail to educate — they actively harm kids.

Police officers in Germany now have to fear if their collegaues have been bought and their lives are in danger.. Criminal organizations, drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption – a new documentary by German public broadcaster ZDF has revealed serious irregularities in the relationship between the German state and organized crime, writes Mandiner news portal. “Kriminelle Clans in Deutschland” shows that criminal networks not only control large cities, but have also established their influence nationwide, right up to state institutions. Accumulating huge wealth illegally, they have built a tight network that includes law enforcement agencies. “It is a murderous and...

"I can negotiate with a man who wants to make money. I can't negotiate with a communist who wants to kill me." — Josh Lippincott on "X" O, Norman Rockwell, where are you when we really need you? Forgive us, Emma Lazarus, our second thoughts about those huddled masses yearning to breathe free. . . the wretched refuse of your teeming shore(s). That was then and this is now. O, beautiful for spacious skies (but, why so many contrails criss-crossing overhead from the New York Island to the gulf stream waters?). O, land of tattooed grandmas, hostages of the tiny...

Former President George W. Bush joined up with former President Barack Obama and U2 singer Bono to comfort United States Agency for International Development employees Monday, while also taking shots at President Donald Trump and his administration for shuttering the agency plagued by accusations of fraud and abuse. “Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy,” Obama said in a video that was shown to departing USAID employees Monday, according to the Associated Press. “Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world.” Obama summed up the decision to shutter the agency as “a colossal...

At a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing Secretary of Health & Human Services Robert F Kennedy jr and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) locked horns over the issue of vaccine safety. It started with Pallone impugning Kennedy's approach to vaccines, saying "you've fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) without input from the dedicated medical experts who support the work that this committee has done to try to keep Americans healthy. You yourself have consistently sided with the conspiracy nuts who oppose the vaccines this committee has mandated every child be given before being allowed to...

The trial of American music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, is almost over. The 12 jurors at a federal court in New York have announced they have come to a decision on four of the five counts faced by Mr Combs, although these decisions have not been disclosed. But the jurors are unable to decide on the racketeering charge, the most serious of the five, which carries a possible life prison term. Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations against him. So what is the racketeering charge,...

As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged. The information that the Secret Service shared with the White House included hotel records and...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday threatened to throw out the guilty plea of a veteran U.S. narcotics agent who conspired with a Colombian cartel money launderer — an unexpected twist that could derail one of the most egregious misconduct cases in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell was expected to sentence the disgraced agent, Jose I. Irizarry, but refused to do so over what she called a “totally unacceptable” legal dispute. “I have never seen anything like this,” Honeywell said, postponing the sentencing indefinitely. “I’m not even sure at...

A UN conference to boost support for global development aid begins on Monday as US funding cuts jeopardise the fight against poverty. But key player the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on combating hunger, disease and climate change. UN sustainable development goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach just as the world's wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programmes. President Donald Trump's gutting of the US development agency USAID is the standout example, with Germany, Britain and France among other rich economies making cuts when faced...

A federal appeals court Friday lifted a lower court’s order that blocked President Donald Trump from moving forward with efforts to dismantle the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Trump is likely to suffer “irreparable” harm if barred from fully exercising his executive authority over the Institute’s board. The court concluded that the Institute holds “substantial executive power,” meaning its board members are not protected from at-will removal by the president. “As a general rule, the President may remove executive officers at will,” the three-judge panel wrote. They added that...

On Thursday, Christina Daniels, 47, of Winder, pled guilty to one count of theft of government money, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years of imprisonment. According to court documents, between January 2023 to May 2024, Daniels, who was employed at the Social Security Administration office in Norcross, changed direct deposit information for 28 beneficiaries. The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said Daniels was a customer service representative, and that’s how she was able to make changes...

The brother-in-law of Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have engineered the greatest transfer of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups in the history of the United States. Tony West, who is the husband of Harris’ sister Maya, served as the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and awarded massive settlements to groups aligned with the Democrats, even when the Department of Justice appeared to be winning the cases, The New York Post reported. “Until 1977, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil suit against the Federal government over $100,000,” The Post reported. But facing numerous cases the...

After widespread public opposition, Sen. Mike Lee says he is withdrawing his controversial proposal to sell millions of acres of public lands. The amendment to the national "Big, Beautiful Bill" could have made more than 18 million acres of land eligible for sale in Utah alone Lee later revised the proposal to remove Forest Service land from it, and to only include Bureau of Land Management property within five miles of "population centers." On Saturday, Utah's Senior Senator announced that he is withdrawing the federal land sales from the bill completely.

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The way suspended FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle sees it, he has lived through 1,004 betrayals — and counting. O’Boyle was rewarded for his whistleblower disclosures to Congress with a loss of pay and benefits, attempted character assassination, and what he said is a malicious FBI effort to destroy him and his family. ‘I thought he was going to do the right thing.’ “If the FBI is trying to make you do something that is wrong or illegal or against policy or against rule, you’re supposed to be able to push back and be protected for doing so,” O’Boyle told...

In a stunning upset on Tuesday, 33-year-old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani beat veteran politico and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. With comparisons to the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), experts have framed the victory as symbolic of where the Democratic party may be headed — away from the older and moderate toward a younger and bolder progressive future. Mamdani’s win may also indicate strong public support for transgender rights and shows that it is not politically dangerous for Democrats to stand by the trans community. If elected, Mamdani has...

Chicago activists welcomed word of a “complete and total ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Iran at a downtown protest Monday evening but said they were cautiously optimistic and urged continued agitation. The protest at Federal Plaza attracted about 200 people despite Monday’s extreme heat. Demonstrators called for the United States to stop bombing Iranian nuclear sites, among other demands. Many condemned U.S. military aid to Israel, supporting its war in Iran and also in Gaza, which has lasted nearly two years. President Donald Trump said on social media Monday that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire...