Free Republic

RealClear Samizdat Prize Gala Celebrates First Amendment Courage – and RCP’s 25th Anniversary By David DesRosiersJanuary 10, 2026 RealClear Samizdat Prize Gala Celebrates First Amendment Courage – and RCP’s 25th AnniversaryRealClearPolitics On February 11, 2026, at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida, RealClear will be celebrating its 25th anniversary year – just as America’s experiment in self-government prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday. Please join us that evening for our third annual Samizdat Prize Gala honoring profiles in free-speech courage. It’s going to be a great night. We will not disappoint. Please consider dressing up, overpaying for a ticket, and...

The 550-pound bear living under a man’s Los Angeles home for 37 days has finally left the building — after being shot at with paintballs. Altadena homeowner Ken Johnson has been living with the massive black bear under his home since Nov. 30 when it began squatting in his crawl space. The “unbearable” roommate ruined Christmas for Johnson and had him on edge for weeks. The bear eviction finally happened Tuesday after Johnson contacted “The Bear League” — a group from Lake Tahoe that specializes in bear removal emergencies. “We heard about Ken, we felt bad for him and flew...

Minnesota State Rep. Marion Rarick says whistleblowers trying to expose fraud in state-run programs are being hit with threats straight out of a political thriller. She warned that the intimidation is systemic, and basically if you speak up, expect your life to be dismantled. Whistleblowers are supposed to be protected by law, and if they’re being hunted for telling the truth, the system is being weaponized. @MarionONeill1 : “Retaliation has been going on for quite some time and it’s now escalated. You’re going to lose your job. You’re going to lose your home. They’ll track your children. They’ll make sure...

CHRISTMAS BIBLE-ART EPISODE #29 of 33 THE HOLY FAMILY FLEES TO EGYPT H O S E A CHAPTER 11 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me.” M A T T H E W CHAPTER 2 When [the Magi] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for...

News flash for Vanity Fair magazine and leftist Icelandic singer Björk!An independent Greenland would be several orders of magnitude easier for the United States to bring into the fold than if it were to remain part of Denmark. And yet this is what Björk is demanding with Vanity Fair acting as her cheerleader.You can read this hilariously misguided effort by Vanity Fair (and Björk) to somehow stop Trump in Tuesday's story by Kahina Sekkai, "Björk Has a Plan to Save Greenland From Donald Trump."

U2 frontman and activist Bono has publicly backed a campaign calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti from an Israeli jail. Barghouti has been serving multiple life sentences since 2002 for orchestrating murderous terrorist attacks against Israelis. He is widely believed to have planned the Second Intifada, which claimed thousands of Israeli lives from 2000 to 2005. Barghouti has continued inciting terrorism from his jail cell. Despite his convictions, he is viewed by many Palestinian Arabs as a unifying figure and potential future leader. In a personal essay published in The Atlantic, Bono described Barghouti as “a leader of vision,...

This one-time Democrat has delivered one of the most scathing indictments I’ve ever seen of the entire leftist cultural infrastructure. Back in 2020, during the George Floyd riots, most Americans first became aware that Democrat women are very troubled. I mean, we’d already heard about “Karens,” a phrase to describe scolding, self-righteous white women. (There is no equivalent phrase for scolding, self-righteous black women, or other minority women, but they’re out there, too.) However, it was during the riots that we suddenly saw women who were no longer merely obnoxious. Instead, they were crazed harpies, screaming at the top of...

HOUSTON — Once surveillance images were released, it was only a matter of hours before authorities found and arrested two suspects believed to be responsible for a deadly shooting on a METRO bus in west Houston. A source close to the investigation said the suspects were identified after investigators circulated images of them to Houston-area school resource officers. Houston police identified the suspect believed to have fired the fatal shot as 17-year-old Brayden Smith, who has been charged with murder. The other suspect was identified as Patrick Scott, 18. He's been charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon, authorities said....

Nothing can bring her back — but the Trump Admin is fighting every day to remove dangerous criminal illegals from our streets. The Laken Riley Act, the very first legislation signed into law, is focused on protecting innocent Americans & strengthening safety.

Daily Readings from the USCCBThe Baptism of the LordJesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. Matthew 3:13–15John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets, entrusted with the mission to immediately prepare the way for the Messiah. Today’s feast marks a pivotal transition from the Old Law...

An elusive bird which is now considered to be extremely rare in Northern Ireland made an unexpected visit to a Belfast street, where it was found behind a bin. Office staff who spotted it on the Lisburn Road thought it might be a bird of prey and called wildlife rescuer Debbie Nelson, who works under the name Debbie Doolittle. She was surprised to find it was in fact a nightjar - a bird she described as "almost extinct" in Northern Ireland, with only a handful of sightings since the 1950s. "They were about to put some rubbish in the bin...

The U.S. shouldn’t ignore this small Asian nation, because it offers interesting options for addressing some American concerns. Myanmar, also called Burma, is holding its first election since a military coup in February 2021. Expectations are low, and the vote has already been denounced as a sham. Early reports suggest that the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won 82 of the 102 townships that voted in the first phase of the election on December 28. The nation has a total of 330 townships. Myanmar has reserves of natural gas as well as rare earth mines. The country’s pariah status...

Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) are planning to introduce a bill that would strip federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers of their qualified immunity protections. The bill, called the ICE OUT Act, comes amid fervent debate over whether an ICE officer should face criminal prosecution for the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good on Wednesday. Macklin Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minnesota after reportedly dropping her son off at school. Videos shared to social media showed Macklin Good’s car stopped on a snowy road when officers approached, demanding she...

We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” the guard said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.” “At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.”

Today’s Cryptogram QVIDI’H L QVMP YMPI AIQSIIP QZ YLWNV SMQV LPF QZ YLWNV LQ. —DMEVLDF UDKZD

All the world seems atilt now from the Mideast to Europe, and as we near the mid-term elections the Democrats seem to have lost it with all but the mentally handicapped. The brilliant U.S. action in Venezuela is causing major shifts in this hemisphere. Indeed, all the world seems atilt now from the Mideast to Europe, and as we near the mid-term elections, the Democrats seem to have lost it with all but the mentally handicapped. The New WorldArgentina, Chile, El Salvador, and Bolivia seem to have discarded the leftist, anti-American nonsense that has so hampered South America and kept...

A short of tour of the archaeological site of Olympia, home of the Olympic Games for more than a millennium. An Archaeological Tour of Olympia | 10:13 Scenic Routes to the Past | 54.2K subscribers | 7,791 views | January 9, 2026 0:00 Introduction 0:55 Gymnasium and Palaestra 1:39 Philippeion 2:09 Temple of Hera 2:35 Temple of Zeus 4:52 Workshop of Phidias 5:37 Leonidaion 6:12 East side structures 6:56 Treasuries and Metroon 7:42 Nymphaeum of Herodes Atticus 8:24 Stadium

Mansur Ashkar analyzes the Minnesota ICE event. He is a retired IDF special forces officer.

The revolt terrifies Western leftist outlets because it breaks the narrative they have maintained for forty-seven years—the narrative of the Islamic Republic as a flawed but authentic anti-imperialist project. Goldie Ghamari on Facebook, 9 January 2025. hat is unfolding in Iran today is neither obscure nor ambiguous; it is visible, audible, and documented across the country, yet much of the Western media landscape treats it as though it were happening behind a fog. The reason is not lack of access, nor insufficient evidence—it is ideological resistance. Iran is witnessing a national reconquest, a moment in which a society openly rejects...

The Talk Shows Jan 11th, 2026 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:FACE THE NATION (CBS): Margaret Brennan anchors: Energy Secretary Chris Wright; Sen. Tim coKaine (D-Va.); Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.); Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.). FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Anchor Shannon Bream: guest-anchored by Jacqui Heinrich: Border czar Tom Homan; Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Sen. Bill Cassidy (RINO-La.); Sen. Mark Warner (Deep State-Va.). Panel: John Ashbrook, Annie Linskey, Juan Williams and Roger Zakheim.MEET THE dePRESS (NBC): Hosted by Kristen Welker: Border czar Tom Homan; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.); Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey; chief foreign...