Free Republic

California’s slow ballot count isn’t just a political disgrace. It’s also a symbol of how California does everything: late, if at all. The high-speed rail was approved in 2008, to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020. Not one inch of track has been laid. The Sites reservoir was originally proposed in the 1950s. It was only approved this year, and nothing has been built. The Delta tunnels were proposed decades ago. Now the project is down to just one tunnel, and it may never be dug.

The Barack Hussein Obama Library, in 10 years, when fully matured!

6 June 2026 Saturday of week 9 in Ordinary Time A Premonstratensian Mass, Ss Peter and Paul in Wilmington, CaliforniaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: A(II).First reading2 Timothy 4:1-8I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; it is time for me to be goneBefore God and before Christ Jesus who is to be judge of the living and the dead, I put this duty to you, in the name of his Appearing and of his kingdom: proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, call to obedience –...

Iran has accused the US of denying visas to "integral" members of its national football team's backroom staff, hours after Washington confirmed Iranian players had been given permission to travel to the upcoming World Cup. US officials said visas had been issued to all players and "necessary support staff" on Friday, 10 days before Iran's opening fixture in Los Angeles on 15 June. They also said Iran would not be allowed to "abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences". Iran's embassy in Turkey accused the US of "politically biased interference in sport" by denying...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy said the country and the U.S. will sign an agreement to design an underwater tunnel connecting Russia’s Chukotka region to Alaska across the Bering Strait. Kirill Dmitriev, who is also head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, made the announcement Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “As regards, the tunnel, we have a piece of news for tomorrow that we will continue tunnel engineering. The tunnel will take place,” he told Russian TV channel Zvezda, according to a translation by state-owned news agency TASS. He added that this will be one of...

A Washington school board director who owns a sex shop is helping host a sex education event for children as young as 9 years old, drawing scrutiny over the program's content and the role of an elected education official in promoting it. Jenn Mason, the owner of WinkWink Boutique, which describes itself as a "woman-owned, inclusive, ‘not creepy’" sex shop in Bellingham, WA, about half an hour from Seattle, is hosting an "Uncringe Academy" for 9- to 12-year-old children on June 24. The event will cover gender and sexual identities, puberty, periods, the "paths to parenthood: the many ways to...

Banquets enjoyed across the French countryside have become a hot political issue after hard-left politicians called for their ban. The massive events, run by company called Le Canon Français, have proved a hit across rural France with four courses of local cuisine, unlimited wine, and several hours of music and group singing. However, politicians from the La France Insoumise (LFI) party have accused the events, costing around €81 (£70) per ticket, of turning a blind eye to racist chanting and deliberately excluding Muslims and vegetarians by featuring pork regularly on the menu. They also pointed to the involvement of conservative...

I started out asking Copilot about a news story that identified an organization as racially segregated, and ended up having a very interesting discussion about AI's political biases. I've skipped the initial parts of the conversation and omitted identifying details, because I don't know it's not racist, and that's not the point of posting this here. My point is to identify the grave situation conservatism is in with AI, and how to have useful discussions anyway. User: Since journalists have been dominated by those whose politics align with a single political party [rephrased], do you really think it's fair to...

Most people don't know this, but the rise of Graham Platner wasn't remotely organic, and there is almost nothing real about his origin story or his campaign. Jim Geraghty did a superb job explaining the process by which a wealthy, mentally unstable guy who was kicked out of an exclusive private school and who bragged about how he went off to war because he wanted to kill people was transformed into a working-class everyman oyster farmer. Platner was handpicked, groomed, artificially constructed, promoted through a sophisticated public relations campaign, and elevated to superstar status. The phrase “it’s an op” –...

A dog famous in China for traveling around with its owner was reportedly stolen, sold for less than $30 and eaten, according to media reports from Asia. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the dog’s name was Chutou and that he was an eight-year-old border collie who gained over a million followers on China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, for accompanying his owner, identified by multiple outlets simply as “Guo,” on journeys across China over many years. Guo, according to SCMP, took a solo trip to Georgia last month and left Chutou behind in the care of his father...

The grieving mother of a hotel worker who was murdered by an illegal migrant is asking Donald Trump for help after being repeatedly ignored by Sir Keir Starmer. Siobhan Whyte's daughter Rhiannon was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver by HIV-positive Sudanese "asylum seeker" Deng Chol Majek in 2024. Since then, she has issued multiple pleas to Labour to hear her case - though they have fallen on deaf ears. Now, after Henry Nowak's murderer was jailed and the Prime Minister met with the Nowak family, Ms Whyte has escalated her case - and is now appealing directly to the...

The number of University of California Berkeley students who failed a computer science course this past spring semester was “significantly higher” than previous terms, according to a recent report. According to The Daily Californian, a whopping 35 percent failed the introductory course “The Beauty and Joy of Computing” (designed for students “with minimal prior exposure to computer science), and just under 11 percent in “The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs,” an intro to programming class. Computer science department guidelines note that “7% of students in lower division courses [including the courses noted], should receive D’s and F’s,” and that...

By Dr. John BergsmaThis weekend is another great liturgical feast, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, otherwise known as Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi is one of a handful of feasts that celebrates the very gift of the Eucharist itself. It is one of my favorite feasts, because the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was instrumental in my becoming Catholic. Back in the Fall of 1999 I was reading through the Apostolic Fathers and came to this passage in Ignatius of Antioch’s Letter to the Smyrneans (c. AD 106): “But consider...

Families in a New Jersey school district were left outraged after a cafeteria menu distributed for June displayed a watermelon graphic on Juneteenth — prompting school officials to condemn the image as racially offensive and demand immediate action from the district’s food-service contractor. Montclair Public Schools said the image appeared on a June cafeteria menu prepared by food-service provider Sodexo and sparked complaints from students, families, staff and community members. Superintendent Ruth Turner said those who saw the menu were “hurt, disappointed, and offended” by the graphic’s appearance alongside the June 19 holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the...

Chicago police say a man sexually assaulted a woman as she walked through the Loop on Friday afternoon, but the attack took an unexpected turn when another woman allegedly stabbed the assailant in the eye before officers arrived. A second man who intervened in the confrontation was also cut during the chaos, according to police. Crime scene tape surrounded the entrance to theWit Hotel at 201 North State Street, where the attack unfolded shortly after 4 p.m., according to witnesses. Police said a 24-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk when a 31-year-old man sexually assaulted her. The suspect then...

Far-left politicians want to annihilate property rights — and a large share of young voters are buying into it. That’s a red flag: Our school systems have become socialist indoctrination factories. This week Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a leftist agenda-setter, called on the federal government to confiscate half the value of the nation’s largest artificial intelligence companies. He’s targeting OpenAI, Anthropic (creator of Claude) and xAI, for starters. Making his announcement on Facebook and in a New York Times opinion essay, Sanders said he’ll introduce legislation to slap these companies with a 50% “ownership tax” — literally grabbing company stock...

Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier view of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The high-resolution image was captured by the interplanetary space probe New Horizons near its closest approach to distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared image data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to...

The anti-ICE crowd outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey has been escalating for days. On Friday, that game caught up with one of them. Independent journalist Nick Sortor was on the ground and captured the moment he says a rioter jumped in front of a civilian employee trying to drive out of the facility. The clip shows exactly how dangerous this kind of street obstruction can get. VIDEO AT LINK.......... 🚨 JUST NOW: A rioter who JUMPED IN FRONT OF a civilian employee driving out of Delaney Hall in Newark LOST a game of chicken with the vehiclePure FAFO.Diving...

Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz for talks in Downing Street on Sunday to discuss support for Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader will visit the UK with the French president and German chancellor after a week of heightened hostilities and Vladimir Putin’s rejection of his proposal of face-to-face talks on Moscow’s war. The three countries meeting the Ukrainian leader are some of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. The UK and France are leading the “coalition of the willing” initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace process. A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack targeted St...

Mohsen Rezaei, the senior military adviser to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, set out a series of demands on behalf of Iran to end the war with the United States and Israel in an interview with CNN. Among the main demands he presented are the release of frozen Iranian assets and the thawing of billions of dollars held by the United States. Rezaei said that the release of the assets would constitute a significant test for Tehran vis-à-vis the Trump administration. "The release of the funds by the Trump administration will be a new horizon for the future of Iran and the...