Free Republic

The Oscars 2026 might be over, but fans’ fury over “dirty” celebrities is just getting started. A picture showing trash, including discarded water bottles and snack packets, strewn across Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre has gone viral on social media — sparking backlash over the hypocrisy of the elite, who grandstand about the environment. “Aren’t some of them environmentalists?” one critic pointed out. “Where’s all that ‘protect the planet’ energy now?” “Save the mountains, keep them clean, blah blah blah … but look at the mess they leave,” another chimed in of the hypocrisy. “Nobody’s buying it anymore. As the saying goes:...

Yesterday I had some figures from the NYC vs LA deathmatch over who can spend more on the homeless population. Los Angeles was looking pretty good with $650,000 per housing unit for the homeless, but don’t count NYC out yet. These numbers come from the NY comptroller’s annual report via Mike Bird of the Economist. New York City’s unsheltered population increased from 3,588 in FY 2019 to 4,504 in FY 2025 — a 26 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels In that time, spending on services for this population has more than tripled, growing from $102 million in FY 2019...

Burning the Canadian flag is legal. Completely legal. A planned law that would’ve mandated the flying of the Ontario flag at all provincial buildings and banned the desecration of the Canadian flag has been scuttled by the Ford government, Global News has learned, after members of the Progressive Conservative caucus questioned the necessity of the bill. Multiple sources told Global News the proposal, spearheaded as part of a patriotism push by Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Graham McGregor, would have potentially violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and may have faced court challenges. But the Iranian flag...

In just the first five months of the new fiscal year, the federal government has already spent more than $3 trillion – more than it spent in all of 2009 – $1 trillion of which it had to borrow. And what is all this money going toward? The federal government was told 15 years ago to take a full, annual inventory of everything it does. It’s never been able to get that done. “Each year, the federal government spends trillions of dollars on federal programs that support the American people and address policy goals,” notes the Government Accountability Office in...

A clear left-right split among voters is showing the further decline of the establishment political parties. The RN’s Franck Allisio, 2024. TrisHR (cropped). The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for the National Rally (RN), which could in turn predict a strong performance in next year’s French presidential race. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) also performed well. In contrast, the traditionalist parties of recent history—Socialists and Les Républicains—are undergoing a process of collapse. In Marseille RN candidate Franck Allisio tied with the incumbent leftwing mayor, Benoît Payan, with both securing more than 35.4%...

It was One Battle After Another’s night. Paul Thomas Anderson’s action-thriller took home six Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, including Best Supporting Actor, Best Directing and Best Picture. The film also won awards for Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the first-ever Oscar for Best Casting. Upon accepting his award, Anderson — who had previously been nominated for an Oscar around a dozen times — joked, “You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it.” Sinners also had a big night, bringing home four Oscars, including Best Actor for...

DDemocrats used to be on the side of victims, but not so much anymore. Women were among their most important victims, suffering under the Republican “war on women.” In the past, they reflexively defended rape victims, accusing anyone of not wanting to immediately lynch accused rapists of “blaming the victim.” But that was before they decided vicious illegal alien criminals were higher on the victimization ladder than American women. Now, pretty much any Democrat favored victim group—trans, drag queens, all manner of domestic criminals, criminal Democrat congressmen, Jihadists—takes precedence over women—and Jews. We no longer hear about the Republican “war...

In Cuba, the locals are in absolute revolt against a 67-year communist tyranny and all its economic failures. Expectations -- a critical element in igniting a revolution -- are rising, and locals are no longer afraid of the state. They are shouting 'libertad' in their hundreds of thousands: Stop romanticizing socialism. None of that aid will get to the Cuban people. The dictatorship steals it and sells it to them in dollars, currency which they don't get paid. What the Cuban people need is freedom. Cuba will be free soon thanks to Donald Trump. Clock is ticking.… pic.twitter.com/FfaVkuqB4R — Libertad...

“History doesn’t move in straight lines. What looks like stagnation can be prelude. Let’s not lose hope.” —RVassil on X. Don’t lose your s--- over mines in the Strait of Hormuz and the oil price shooting up. Iran has many thousands of mines. But something has to lay them out in the water. Iran has no more naval ships. They have small boats. The US can see everything moving on the surface, or sitting at docks. We are blowing them up methodically. The news outlets who want the US to fail in this operation (because: Trump) want you to think...

In New York’s large suite of self-destructive public policies, it’s hard to choose which one is the very worst. But an excellent candidate is the regime for regulation of residential rents, mostly going by the name of Rent Stabilization. Because of rent regulation, New York’s rental housing stock is older, more outdated, and less well-maintained than the housing of any other American city. If you got yourself into one of the regulated apartments a few decades ago, you likely enjoy a significant bargain on your monthly rent versus comparable space, to go along with your 30- or 40-year old kitchen...

The second edition of the Malta Biennale opened in previews this week, and it was not without controversy. Women on Waves, a nonprofit that provides information on safe abortion in restrictive settings, accused the Biennale’s organizers of “censoring” an artwork by the organization just before the opening on Tuesday. The work originally featured a banner reading Need Abortion Pills? in English and Maltese. According to a press release from Women on Waves, the banner was altered, at the Biennale’s request, to read Do You Need a Safe Abortion?, with the word Pills crossed out. The nonprofit said organizers then informed...

While the original focus was on questions about the Iran war, at the tail end of an impromptu presser yesterday, President Trump was asked about Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the status of U.S. national security. President Trump said he was very disappointed that President Sheinbaum refused his offer of assistance in eliminating the cartels in Mexico. Ultimately culminating in the statement, “the cartels are running Mexico.” Considering everything President Trump is doing to secure the Western Hemisphere objective, it must be very frustrating to eliminate various narcotraffickers, human smugglers and transnational agents of chaos, and yet still have one...

The Democrats have been making desperate arguments against voter ID legislation, including claims that it will disenfranchise married women due to their name change. Naturally, they’ve left out the part about Barack Obama launching his political career by using the name change of a married woman in his successful attempt to have all his opponents kicked off the ballot and run unopposed. The SAVE Act, which has been passed by the House and is heavily supported by the public but is stalled in the Republican Senate, simply “requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote,...

Messages sent to an A-I chatbot were at the center of a preliminary hearing for a former NFL player charged with first-degree murder. Investigators say dozens of messages between Darron Lee and ChatGPT were presented in court as prosecutors outlined their case surrounding the death of Lee’s girlfriend, Gabriella Perpetuo, who was found dead inside their Ooltewah home. Hamilton County Sheriff’s Detective Brian Lockhart testified that Lee contacted the chatbot just a day before Perpetuo’s death, describing a disturbing situation.

They're spraying 'Viva Trump' in public places in Havana. Historians will tell you that rising expectations create conditions for revolutions. Which brings us to Cuba, where the locals are rioting to demand the end of 65 years of stone-cold communism. According to Fox News: Protesters attacked a Communist Party headquarters in Cuba overnight, ransacking the building and attempting to set it on fire, while video from the scene appeared to capture gunfire and a man on the ground outside, according to footage obtained by Fox News Digital. Cuban state media later denied that anyone had been struck by police gunfire...

Abigail Spanberger ran for governor of Virginia as a sane, middle-of-the-road Democrat, but once elected immediately went communist crazy. Among her rapidly developing acts of comradely solidarity is an “assault weapon” and magazine capacity ban. There is, of course, no such thing in firearm nomenclature as an “assault weapon.” There are military assault rifles, which fire intermediate cartridges and have select fire—automatic—capability, but such rifles are essentially banned by federal law. What Spanberger is targeting is America’s most popular rifle, the semiautomatic AR-15 and anything like it. The bill also bans magazines of greater than 15 round capacity, which encompasses...

Since President Trump initiated strikes on Iran’s theocratic, totalitarian regime two weeks ago, members of the so-called “religion of peace” have been carrying out revenge killings across the United States. On March 1, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal wearing a “Property of Allah” hoodie opened fire on patrons having fun at an Austin, Texas, beer garden. He killed three Americans and injured a dozen more before being put down. When feds searched the shooter’s home, they found an Iranian flag and pictures of Iranian leaders. There was a Quran in the killer’s vehicle. On March 7, two Muslim men...

We’ve grown used to the media’s joining with the Democrats to attack every move by the President, but it is still something to watch the lies and distortions about the war in Iran where the press smears the troops in the middle of battle. Using the latest technology and working closely with the IDF and IAF, our military has achieved the most remarkable, unpredicted achievements in a matter of days. On the other hand, most major media coverage denigrates this accomplishment and regrettably advocates for our enemies. The week began with reports that the Department of War wasted money buying...

It is now 80 percent cheaper for Americans who choose to renounce their U.S. citizenship to make it official. The U.S. State Department on Friday published a rule that cut the cost from $2,350 to $450 after it was promised in 2023. However, the rule did not take effect until now, the Associated Press (AP) reported. “The Department of State (‘Department’) is proposing to amend the Schedule of Fees for Consular Services (‘Schedule’) to reduce the current fee for Administrative Processing of a Request for a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States (CLN) from $2,350 to $450,”...

The writer of Ecclesiastes had seen enough of the world. Wealth, wisdom, labor, pleasure – he’d tried them all and arrived at the same conclusion: Vanity. A breath. A chasing after wind. No one seems to talk about Ecclesiastes anymore. Not even in Christian circles. Scholars and early Jewish rabbis have argued for centuries over whether the book should be considered canonical. Its apparent pessimism is a stumbling block for some. I submit that this is because we generally want our beliefs and politics to be hopeful. But the words in Ecclesiastes 1:18 have aged better than most of our...