Free Republic

Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York City's mayoral race shows what's coming for America's big cities — because it follows the socialist-populist playbook once wielded by Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Each promised equality and delivered ruin. Each created enemies to consolidate control. Each left behind poverty, censorship, and exile. New York, once the capital of capitalism, has now chosen a man eager to run the same playbook. And when the consequences come — as they always do — they won't stay contained to the five boroughs. Florida has become the new New York, and Miami-Dade...

Former New Hampshire Democrat Rep. Stacie Laughton, a biological male originally named Barry Charles Laughton Jr. who now identifies as a transgender woman, recently pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of children. Monday, Laughton also pleaded guilty in a Boston federal court to several more recent charges after Laughton’s female partner, Lindsay Groves, admitted to sending him sexually explicit photos of children — child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Groves is accused of sending Laughton numerous explicit photos of male and female children, with the victims appearing to be between the ages of three to five years old....

This is the genocide that no one will talk about.Islamic terrorism is the outcry of the oppressed, apologists tell us. If the perpetrators only had access to more advanced weapons, they wouldn’t feel the need to massacre civilians with everything from machetes to rockets. Terrorism is a local phenomenon, not a global one.Jihadist terrorism only grabs our attention when it occurs on a large scale, like 9/11 or Oct 7, and then its allies, apologists and appeasers quickly redirect attention by indicting the response to the attacks as ‘oppression’, faking atrocities, complaining about ‘Islamophobia’ and a police state, and quibbling...

The number of detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody increased to 66,000 this week, setting a new record high as President Trump intensifies his crackdown on illegal immigration, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by CBS News.Never before has ICE held so many detainees facing deportation at any given time, according to officials, historical data and immigration policy experts.ICE's detainee population has ballooned by nearly 70% since Mr. Trump took office for a second time in January, when ICE was holding around 39,000 individuals in its detention system. The previous high before Mr. Trump's second...

For years, Missouri lawmakers have heard warnings that enacting policies targeting the LGBTQ+ population could drive individuals and businesses out of the state. Local officials and chambers of commerce raised red flags about potential impacts on recruitment and retention of employees, as well as the ability to lure businesses to the state. Now, studies are showing that the state’s actions have already pushed LGBTQ+ Missourians to move — taking their tax dollars, and even businesses, elsewhere. Analysis by the Movement Advancement Project estimates that around $362 million to $879 million in household income has left the state, a number that...

A holding pen that just one day earlier housed 300 ostriches now contains their tarp-covered bodies after officials carried out a slaughter late Thursday night.The pen sits on the grounds of Universal Ostrich Farms in British Columbia, Canada, which has been locked in a legal battle with federal officials over a government‑ordered cull. Witnesses said trucks and SUVs belonging to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) arrived at the farm, and several men were seen carrying equipment into the enclosures. Around 6pm local time, the sound of repeated gunfire echoed across the property as supporters gathered outside, praying and shouting...

Last spring and summer I watched bits of our contemporary gladiatorial contests, AKA congressional confirmation hearings. One thrust that many Democrat inquisitors relied on to soften up their victims was some form of the question: “Do you believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 election?” At least one contestant resorted to the parry “I believe that Joe Biden was seated as president,” which of course is not quite the same thing as acknowledging that he actually won. The subterfuge did not pass by unnoticed. Nothing escapes these Democrat Divas of the Dialectic. Having exposed the equivocation, they attempted to pounce....

See the old man with the kindly eyes? There’s nothing kindly about them. And there’s nothing kind about what’s waiting for you and your family out on the highways. Just listen: On November 8, 1994 there was a light drizzle and fog on the Illinois expressways and up into Wisconsin. It was fall. Temperatures were in the 40s. Now think of the Willis family packed into the family van, six kids and parents on the expressway near Milwaukee. The father, my friend Scott Willis, a Christian pastor from Mt. Greenwood, was driving. His wife Janet was in the seat next...

Lawmakers on Thursday called for the passage of the PELOSI Act to ban congressional stock in honor of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) retirement. “She’ll be the opportunity to finally ban stock trading by members of Congress. Nobody made more, I think, than her,” Hawley told reporters on Thursday. […] Hawley in April reintroduced the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act, which would ban lawmakers and their spouses from purchasing or selling individual stocks. …

Maricopa County election workers discovered Friday morning two sealed boxes of ballots that were mistakenly not returned on the night of Tuesday's election. Workers were inspecting equipment returned from voting locations in the Valley and found two sealed boxes containing 2,288 ballot envelopes, according to Deputy Elections Director for Communications Jennifer Liewer. Poll workers apparently placed the boxes by mistake in a blue drop box instead of returning them on Nov. 4. Liewer said a bipartisan team of election staff have taken custody of the boxes to ensure chain-of-custody protocols were followed. The ballot envelopes will now go through the...

A North Carolina home invasion left a national kart racing champion dead — gunned down in front of his fiancée in a late-morning break-in last month, according to authorities. Tyler Weaver, 25, suffered fatal gunshot wounds in what the local police chief called a "targeted" robbery that took place around 10 a.m. on Oct. 24, according to the Forest City Police Department. Weaver's fiancée, Nevaeh Quintero, was held at gunpoint but managed to escape and call 911, according to court documents. The suspects are both repeat offenders who avoided capture for 10 days before authorities caught up with them. They...

New York Post columnist Miranda Devine joined 'The Brian Kilmeade Show' to discuss the Fox Nation special, 'Cocaine at 1600,' which investigates the mysterious bag of cocaine found at the White House during the Biden admin. 16 min

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against federal immigration agents over their use of force during Operation Midway Blitz, telling lawyers for the Trump administration she found their evidence "simply not credible." "It is difficult to conceive how an injunction requiring the government to comply with the Constitution could possibly be harmful," U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis said as she explained her decision. She said she is granting "complete relief to plaintiffs" and rejected the government's request for a stay pending appeal, saying they have not made a strong showing that they're likely to succeed on the merits of...

A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered a lower court to reconsider a decision to keep President Donald Trump's ongoing case to erase his hush money conviction in state court. The three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal judge failed to consider "important issues relevant" to Trump's request to move the New York case to federal court, where he can seek to have it thrown out on presidential immunity grounds. Judges Susan L. Carney, Raymond J. Lohier Jr. and Myrna Pérez made their ruling after hearing arguments about the case in June. Trump's legal...

A North Carolina kart racing national champion was murdered in front of his fiancée during a violent home invasion by two suspected career criminals who were captured 10 days after the “targeted” attack. Tyler Weaver, 25, was found dead on the floor of his Forest City home on Oct. 24, when police responded to the rural house following reports of a break-in just before 10 a.m., officials said. Weaver and his fiancée, Nevaeh Quintero, were inside when the suspects allegedly broke in and opened fire, according to WLOS. Weaver, who twice won the 2018 Maxxis Kart Racing National Championship, was...

Embedded video linked to X Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to firebomb a concert by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night. During the performance, which was held at the prestigious Philharmonic Hall in Paris, dozens of protesters broke into the hall, chanted anti-Israel slogans and lit flares. The music was stopped and the musicians began to leave the stage. A post published by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University read: "Pro-Palestinian protesters firebombed a concert and the musicians were removed from the stage. After the matter was resolved, the they were brought back on stage to...

Aman from Kent, Washington, has been charged by federal prosecutors in a scheme linked to the thwarted Halloween terror plot in Michigan, according to court filings. Saed Ali Mirreh, 19, who is a U.S. citizen, is accused of conspiring to provide support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to a federal complaint in the Western District of Washington. Authorities say he acted as a fundraiser for travel to Syria and coordinated with overseas contacts. RELATED | Two Michigan men face charges in alleged Halloween terror attack plot, FBI says. The case is tied to a broader investigation in Michigan...

Ukraine is facing a “forever war” and a slow erosion of territory unless Europe dramatically increases pressure on Russia, including by deploying troops and establishing a missile and drone shield on Nato territory to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks on its infrastructure, a former Nato secretary general has said. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who held the Nato post from 2009 to 2014 and was the prime minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009, said in an interview with the Guardian that if countries such as Poland agreed to host such air defences, Russia would understand that an attack on them would...

A Seattle sex offender who had previously been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole is now accused of the 1994 murder of 14-year-old Tanya Frazier. On Thursday, King County prosecutors charged Mark Anthony Russ, 57, with one count of murder in the first degree with a sexual motivation after Seattle police said they linked him to Frazier's murder through DNA. In 1996, Russ was given a life sentence under Washington's persistent offender law, also known as "3 strikes," after being convicted of several violent crimes in the 1980s and 1990s. His life sentence was vacated due...

The NYPD became aware of the graffiti on a Magen David Yeshiva school in Brooklyn in the morning after the election. A New York Jewish day school was vandalized with swastika graffiti on Tuesday night, the New York Police Department and Governor Kathy Hochul said in statements on Wednesday.The NYPD became aware of the graffiti on a Magen David Yeshiva school in Brooklyn in the morning. The swastikas were spray-painted on multiple construction barriers.Antisemitism is at a record high. We're keeping our eyes on it >>Governor Kathy Hochul said on X that the school was one of several Jewish sites...