Free Republic

New Jersey Right to Life (NJRTL) strongly condemns Governor Mikie Sherrill’s decision to sign S2260 into law. This legislation grants sweeping legal immunity to abortion providers and erects new barriers against accountability for activities the state now broadly labels “reproductive health care,” shielding them from certain investigations, legal actions, and records requests originating outside New Jersey. “Governor Sherrill just signed a blank check for the abortion industry and a death warrant for countless unborn children with beating hearts, and she did it despite thousands of emails from New Jersey residents urging her to veto this bill,” said NJRTL Executive Director...

Police are searching for two suspects caught on video Friday violently attacking a man who works to serve the homeless in San Bernardino, sending him to the hospital. Greg Medina said he was just relaxing in his jacuzzi when he was assaulted, and the attack was completely random and unprovoked. He’s hoping someone might recognize the suspects to bring them to justice. He didn’t get a good look at them but said he believes they’re either teens or young adults. “I could have lost consciousness or I could have been hurt a lot worse and drowned,” he said.

Democrats have largely subverted the mainstream media, reducing it to a party propaganda organ. Yet journalism will continue to be an impediment to their consolidation of power, so long as independent journalists like Nick Shirley let people know what is going on. So California came up with the Stop Nick Shirley Act in response to the political earthquake he caused by revealing Democrat-sanctioned Somali fraud in Minnesota. As California State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio observed, “If this bill becomes law, the message is clear to every journalist in California: expose corruption and you will be punished.” Democrats have crossed the Rubicon...

State Sen. Aisha Wahab won the special election Thursday to complete former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term, overcoming more than $5 million in outside spending favoring her opponent and becoming the first Afghan American elected to Congress. Wahab widened her lead over BART Board President Melissa Hernandez to 53% to 47% in the latest returns. Wahab had 51,610 votes to Hernandez’s 45,598, an insurmountable margin with just 255 ballots left to cure. Wahab will complete Swalwell’s term, which expires in January, before facing Hernandez again Nov. 3 for a full two-year term... The race tightened dramatically after outside political groups poured...

Daily Readings from the USCCBMemorial of Saint Pius X, PopeWhen the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Matthew 22:34–36Today’s Gospel takes place during the final week of Jesus’ public ministry, shortly after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when the crowds acclaimed Him as the Messiah, the Son of David. As the week progressed, Jesus faced an onslaught of confrontations from various religious authorities: the chief priests and elders, the Pharisees and Herodians, the...

Nine Democrat Massachusetts state representatives stood up to 123 of their party colleagues by voting against a bill legalizing abortion up until the moment of birth. Now that Democrat Governor Maura Healy has signed the bill into law, some of them are beginning to speak out publicly. Even though the bill was fated to pass due to the overwhelming Democrat supermajority in the state’s House, the nine Democrats, at least one of whom is pro-abortion, voted against removing Massachusetts restrictions on abortions after 24 weeks. On Monday, August 10, Gov. Healy signed the bill into law. In interviews with Fox...

New Black Panther Party national chairwoman Krystal Muhammad celebrates Judge John Roach’s recusal outside the Collin County Courthouse and demands convicted murderer Karmelo Anthony’s release. New Black Panther Party national chairwoman Krystal Muhammad celebrated the removal of the judge who presided over Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial, and immediately demanded that the convicted killer be released from prison. Standing outside the Collin County Courthouse following Wednesday’s recusal hearing, Muhammad erupted into chants of “Black Power” as Anthony’s supporters celebrated the procedural victory. “Black Power. It’s about goddamn time. Our power to the people. That’s the first step. Now we need for...

Hold onto your ectoplasm, folks, because Insidious: Out of the Further is a towering, terrifying triumph of modern horror! A landmark of modern supernatural cinema! A pulse-pounding thrill ride into The Further that will leave you screaming for more! A masterpiece of terror! A spine-tingling, seat-jumping, popcorn-spilling rollercoaster of frights that’ll have you sleeping with the lights on forever! This is the film The Sixth Sense wishes it could be.It’s a beguiling film that leans into spectacle without surrendering its core pulse: fear tethered to longing, peril braided with pathos. If you’ve followed the series, you’ll recognize the familiar grooves...

The church, whose earliest accounts are recorded in the book of Acts, was established by Jesus and given a Great Commission (see Matthew 28:18-20) to continue His work in the world. Taken seriously, what would the world look like if the church does its job? Does the ministry of pregnancy help offer a reflection of that work? Reports from of a resurgence in faith from Christian research organization Barna Group versus Pew Research Center showing a slowing and leveling off in the decline of Christianity, both from 2025, may not align, but both offer encouragement. News reports covering anecdotal trends...

Kathy Hochul is urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to devote greater attention to governing the city and less to Israel, according to an interview with The New York Times published Thursday. Hochul was asked about a video Mamdani released last month in which he acknowledged that, despite his repeated promises, he does not have the authority to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The video drew hundreds of millions of views and included accusations against Israel, including the false claim that Netanyahu is a war criminal[sic]. Mamdani has faced repeated criticism over his anti-Israel positions and statements. During his...

Earlier this summer, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that 50 organizations would no longer receive grants for the teen pregnancy prevention program (TPP), including Planned Parenthood. A federal judge has now blocked that change, though the organizations won't begin receiving funding again yet. Key Takeaways: * In June, over 50 organizations, including Planned Parenthood, were informed that they would no longer receive TPP grants due to the inclusion of "sexually explicit" content in their program materials. * Planned Parenthood and other groups have been criticized for including age-inappropriate, graphic sexual content in their sexual education programs....

Political commentator and comedian John Oliver discussed personhood laws on a recent episode of his show, "Last Week Tonight," on HBO, arguing that such laws "treat[] women as incubators." Key Takeaways: Comedian John Oliver said multiple states currently have personhood laws (which treat preborn human beings as actual human beings) in place, and complained that even legislation like fetal homicide laws are dangerous. * He additionally pointed to cases of medical neglect as "proof" that personhood laws harm women. * Oliver argued that personhood laws turn their mothers into nothing more than "hosts" and "incubators." The Details: On Sunday night's...

At a conference I attended recently in DC, I had the chance to show a lot of my colleagues around the downtown monuments. For them, many from other countries, seeing the Lincoln, the Washington, the Capitol, was once in a lifetime – for me, it was Tuesday. At one point, a German in the group – fatigue in his voice – asked me, “Tell me… How can Americans keep voting for Trump?” The term Trump was shorthand for Americans’ embracing nationalism and rejecting globalism, which seems oh-so backwards to our European cousins. I think he expected me to dance around...

“A New York woman allegedly planned to bomb the New York State Capitol and scouted the building clad in a burka ahead of the ISIS–inspired plot, the FBI said. Jessica Bowie, 35, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to a complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York. She stands accused of planning to target the New York State Capitol and New York State Senators. Investigators learned that Bowie had intended to conduct the attack before fleeing to Syria to join others in ISIS–controlled territories,...

Instead of drawing out the big mystery over how much of your money Washington wastes on improper payments, I'll just tell you right up front: In the 20 years between 2003 and 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates the total money blown on payments made in error, or in the wrong amount, or with no documentation (!!!) is $2.7 TRILLION.That's a two followed by a seven followed by 11 zeroes. That's almost double what we spent last year on Medicare/Medicaid combined, or on Social Security. It's triple last year's defense budget. It's almost triple the unconscionable amount we spent...

Most of our attention here at Hot Air is devoted to politics and cultural issues, but I came across some stories this week that have me worried about something else: Earthquakes.I've been living here since 1997 and in that time I've experienced at least half a dozen earthquakes. Most of them are small. Maybe your chair rocks in place a little bit. It's unnerving, partly because you don't know how long it will last or if what you're feeling will suddenly get a lot worse. I've only experienced two earthquakes that I'd describe as scary. The worst one happened sometime...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's plan to open five government-controlled grocery stores – one for each borough! – is going about as well as you'd expect a taxpayer-funded socialist supermarket experiment would go. Not great.On Wednesday, city officials took a group of prospective vendors to tour the site of the Harlem store, dressing them up in hardhats and high-visibility vests. Everyone was ready for a muddy-boots tour of the construction site, hyped to be wowed by this socialist utopia coming to life. They were greeted by an empty parking lot with no construction whatsoever. Even worse, there was trash...

It's midnight! It's bed time!

Total federal debt reached approximately $40.047 trillion on August 18, 2026, according to the Treasury Department’s Debt to the Penny database. That included roughly $32.27 trillion held by the public and $7.78 trillion in obligations held within the federal government.The milestone is difficult to comprehend in isolation. But the speed of the increase makes it more alarming.A decade ago, total federal debt stood near $19.4 trillion. America has therefore added more than $20 trillion to its debt burden in approximately ten years. It took the country more than two centuries to accumulate its first $20 trillion—and roughly a decade to...

The evening of Aug. 19, 1976, was hot and muggy in Kansas City, where the Republicans were wrapping up their convention. Gerald Ford was scheduled to give his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination for what is probably the last contested party convention in American history. While exact totals varied slightly depending on uncommitted state delegations, Ford entered the convention with approximately 1,100 to 1,110 committed delegates, while his challenger Ronald Reagan held around 1,030 to 1,040. Because neither candidate had reached the 1,130-delegate threshold outright, roughly 90 to 100 uncommitted delegates held the balance of power. It had been...