Free Republic

When he ran for president in 2008, the junior senator from Illinois was firmly, resolutely, 100% against gay marriage. It was a religious objection, you see: “[A]s a Christian, [marriage] is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.” Of course, then-Sen. Barack Obama said this just a few months after the Rev. Wright “God **** America” controversy. People forget, but that scandal put Obama’s Christian faith in the spotlight. His halo was tarnished and his momentum derailed: He lost three of the next four states to Hillary Clinton (Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia), winning only North Carolina, where black voters...

Leaked audio reveals how important the Michigan Senate race has become as a major testing ground for national strategy - and even the 2028 presidential race. Introducing Democratic socialist El–Sayed at a private New York City fundraiser, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez explicitly raised the stakes for the midterm election on leaked tape first obtained by Politico. 'If Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere,' Ocasio–Cortez said, framing a victory as a necessary catalyst for systemic change. 'We are going to break the electoral map everywhere, everywhere, because that is what it is going to take to guarantee health care...

Scientists are as prone as anyone else to groupthink, and stifling dissent often produces disaster. Three of the costliest policy failures in recent decades—the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid lockdowns and the campaign for rapid decarbonization—share a pathology we call the Consensus Trap. Problems began with the output of complex, unvalidated models presented as facts. Institutions and public figures under pressure to appear authoritative ignored uncertainties. Along with the press, these institutions and people became arbiters of truth, amplifying the declared consensus rather than critically assessing the evidence. Once “the science” was declared, dissent was treated as misconduct. In all...

Imagine your mom and dad intentionally sent you to a bad school. How would you respond? Some 11 years ago, parents Faraji and Nikole Hannah-Jones dropped their daughter off at school for the first time. Because of New York City’s novel Pre-K for All program, they could apply for any of the 1,800 options across the city. Instead of choosing the school that was best for their daughter, they deliberately sent young Najya to a school they knew was subpar. Now they’re left wondering if that decision was a mistake. On Sept. 20, Nikole Hannah-Jones released an essay examining all...

PARIS — At long last, the Palestinian people finally have a land to truly call their own. After decades of war, strife, and refusing other offers for sovereign territory, a new nation for Palestinians was at last established within the country formerly known as "France." "What a remarkable moment for the Palestinian people, seeing their flag raised over the Arc de Triomphe, knowing this land belongs to them," said Middle East policy expert Gerard Rousseau. "They may have traded the Jordan River for the Seine, but the Palestinians finally have a homeland. It has been so gracious how quickly the...

Even when I was a child, I was taught about the revolution. "They taught me how to recognize an undercover cop and an FBI agent in a crowd, how to speak in code on the phone - it was all a game to me." Zaid Ayers Dorn did not have an ordinary childhood. There were no Disney characters on the walls of his children's room. Instead, he was watched from a poster by Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh. He could not go to kindergarten for years. The family outings were not organized for a picnic, but to observe the...

US District Judge David Leibowitz dismissed a case against Florida non-citizen resident Chelsea Cox for voting in the 2020 election on the grounds that "under the US Constitution each state has the right to decide who will be allowed to vote in elections. Article I, Section 4 explicitly states that 'The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.' There is no requirement regarding citizenship mentioned. Therefore it is my ruling that the federal government lacks the authority to prosecute Ms. Cox for illegally voting. The authority...

Move over, Richard Nixon. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) was so disgusted with a new report ex-special prosecutor Jack Smith covertly tracked the phone calls and emails White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sent in 2024, while she was co-chairing President Donald Trump’s campaign, that he said it was a “bigger scandal than Watergate.” Lee said Smith’s actions should go down in history as a disgrace in a Monday morning X post. “Again: this is objectively a bigger scandal than Watergate,” Lee posted. “The main difference is that the Democrat establishment & media happily look the other way when the...

NEW: Every federal judge in the Middle District of Tennessee has recused from Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s lawsuit against former Special Counsel Jack Smith. The Sixth Circuit will now designate an outside district judge to hear the case.

Updated on Oct. 5 at 3:36 p.m. Before the justices took the bench on Monday for the first oral arguments of the 2026-27 term, the Supreme Court issued a list of orders from the justices’ private conference on Sept. 28, where they considered petitions for review that built up during the summer recess. As it does each year, that “long conference” produced a lengthy list of denied petitions. The justices denied review in hundreds of cases, including a high-profile dispute over whether schools may bar students from wearing sweatshirts printed with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” a clash over the...

The effort to end the conservative majority in the Wyoming House is backed by a well-funded left-wing network. The effort to end the conservative majority in the Wyoming House is not simply a spontaneous, homegrown campaign. It is backed by a well-funded left-wing network stretching from national progressive organizations directly into Wyoming’s Republican primary. In a red state like Wyoming, the vast majority of political races are decided in the Republican primary, as few Democrats run in the November general. Instead, liberals often run as Republicans and get supporters to infiltrate the Republican primary at the polls to vote for...

"Abdi Nur Salah and his co-conspirators used taxpayer money meant to support hungry children to buy themselves a life of luxury," an FBI official said. Abdi Nur Salah, a former aide to Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, was sentenced last week to nearly three years in federal prison for his role in Minnesota’s sprawling Feeding Our Future scandal. The scandal takes its name from the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which sponsored meal sites throughout the state where free food for children was purportedly served. In reality, the defendants submitted fraudulent claims for reimbursement from the federal government for meals that...

U.S. — With unrest drawing attention around the globe and the November midterm elections coming up soon, Democrats made it a point to blame President Donald Trump's cuts to USAID for slowing the communist takeover of the West. Though the party's plan to overrun the western world with a deadly combination of leftist politics and Islamic conquest remained alive, Democrats stressed that it had been severely hampered by drastically reduced funding for USAID programs. "We're still trying, but it's making it much more difficult," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. "Trump has gutted USAID funding for so many causes throughout...

WOODSTOCK, ME — Shouts of "BOOOO!" could be heard coming from a cabin in the woods as a man later identified as podcast host Tucker Carlson became increasingly frustrated while watching Indiana Jones defeat the Nazis, neighbors said. Following a failed debate against Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Carlson chose to unwind with a viewing of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a film he remembered enjoying as a 20-year-old. But that was then. Now, his eyes having been opened to the plight of Nazis, he found himself thinking of how much better off the world would have been if the Nazis...

Agents tracked Melania and Barron Trump's travel and monitored Susie Wiles' calls as part of the Jack Smith investigation =================================================================== The Biden-era FBI tracked Trump family travel, including the First Lady and Barron Trump, and surveilled future White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' phone as federal officials worked the classified documents investigation reaching deep into Trump's inner circle, newly declassified records show. Documents released Monday by the White House detail "Plasmic Echo," the probe later led by special counsel Jack Smith into whether Trump improperly retained classified documents after leaving office. The declassified documents show agents tracked the first...

SpaceX is targeting no earlier than Thursday, October 8 for a Falcon 9 launch of the Space Development Agency's (SDA) fourth Tranche 1 data transport mission to low-Earth orbit (LEO) from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff is targeted for 12:54 a.m. PT, with a backup opportunity available on Friday, October 9 at 12:47 a.m. PT, if needed. This is the fourth of nine Tranche 1 missions Falcon 9 will launch on behalf of the SDA.SpaceX |

Tennessee didn't just fail to execute Christa Pike, argues anesthesiologist and intensive care doctor Joel Zivot in a New York Times opinion piece—it exposed what lethal injection really is. Zivot, hired as a medical expert by Pike's legal team, says he warned that her small veins and medical history made a botched execution more likely. On Wednesday, pentobarbital was injected into her veins; when the first dose didn't stop her heart, a second was given. Her arms turned purple, her lawyers say, and she reported extreme pain before an ambulance was finally called more than an hour after the process...

Britain has spent nearly $40 million on SpaceX (SPCX.O), opens new tab satellite services, deepening its reliance on Elon Musk's company for military communications despite growing European concerns about dependence on U.S. ​security infrastructure. The spending was disclosed to Reuters in response to a freedom of information request and makes Britain the first country outside the ‌U.S. to publicly acknowledge adopting Starshield, SpaceX's service for military and intelligence missions. Starlink is marketed to consumer and commercial users. Britain's defence ministry said it has about 1,000 Starshield terminals and 500 Starlink terminals. It has spent about £13 million ($17.6 million) on...

Ship 43 (Flight 16) continues preparations inside Starbase’s Mega Bay 2 ahead of a potential trip to Florida. Plans are subject to change: SpaceX has confirmed it will launch Flight 15 from Starbase before potentially conducting the following mission from Pad 39A at KSC, Florida. Possible Florida Starship? - Starbase Summary | 10:03 NASASpaceflight | 1.52M subscribers | 117,242 views | October 4, 2026

The U.S. Department of Education’s proposed rule to overhaul the federal accreditation system is reshaping the broader national debate over accreditation. Among other changes, the proposal would simplify the process for recognizing emerging and existing accreditors, and explicitly encourage a quality-assurance system more focused on student outcomes, academic excellence, and return on investment. Accreditation performs an essential function in American higher education. The Department of Education recognizes accrediting agencies, and accreditation by an appropriate federally recognized agency can help establish a college or university’s eligibility to participate in federal Title IV student-aid programs. That makes accreditors powerful gatekeepers. But a...