Free Republic

NEW: Raccoon gets drunk at an ABC liquor store in Ashland, Virginia, and passes out in the bathroom. Hanover County Animal Protection says the raccoon "ransacked" the store before passing out next to the toilet. "Officer Martin safely secured our masked bandit and transported him back to the shelter to sober up before questioning," Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter said in a statement. "After a few hours of sleep and zero signs of injury (other than maybe a hangover and poor life choices), he was safely released back to the wild, hopefully having learned that breaking and entering is...

President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Americans may "not even have income tax to pay" in the near future, saying tariff-driven revenue could allow for the historic elimination of the federal income tax under his tenure. Trump told a press gaggle after his cabinet meeting that "at some point in the not too distant future you won’t even have income tax to pay," arguing that revenue the government is collecting under his administration is now "so great… so enormous." "Whether you get rid of it or just keep it around for fun or have it really low, much lower than...

The White House has paused all immigration applications from 19 countries and canceled citizenship ceremonies across the US, citing national security and public safety concerns. The freeze could affect more than 1.5 million people who had asylum applications pending and more than 50,000 who received asylum grants under the Biden administration, The New York Times reports. President Donald Trump is also considering expanding the travel ban to more than 30 countries, according to the New York Post. The new policy memorandum, released Tuesday night, cites last week’s 'terror attack' in D.C. where Afghan man Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested for allegedly...

A group of New Jersey school staffers allegedly hosted and participated in disturbing “pedophile parties,” including a paraprofessional accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an underage student, according to a recently resurfaced lawsuit. The Pinelands Regional School District paraprofessional and other staff members participated in more than one dress as your “favorite pedophile” party around August 2023, according to the suit filed in Ocean County by an ex-district employee obtained by The Post. More details on what the parties entailed were not included in the court doc. Still, the revolting theme alone proved the male paraprofessional displayed an “egregious...

A Russian military victory in Ukraine would cost Europe twice as much as a Ukrainian victory, according to a new study by Corisk and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs published on Nov. 25. Under the first scenario proposed by the researchers, Moscow's forces would continue their incremental advance and push westward toward the Dnipro River. As a result of their military victories, the Kremlin would force Ukraine to accept a negotiated settlement on terms beneficial to Moscow. According to the report, such an outcome would amount to a Russian partial victory, giving the Kremlin influence over Ukraine's political and...

Dublin councilors halted plans to rename a park currently honoring a past Israeli president that had drawn criticism from the Irish and Israeli governments, the city council said on Sunday. The park, located near Dublin’s sole Jewish school, is named after Ireland-born Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president. Ireland, home to about 3,000 Jewish people, has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the move to rename “Herzog Park” followed a campaign by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists, but official council documents did not disclose a reason for the proposal. The proposal had been scheduled for...

The Russian military has more armored vehicles than it did on the eve of Russia's wider war on Ukraine in February 2022. And for one main reason. Despite losing as many as 16,100 vehicles in action in Ukraine, the Russians have more than compensated for these losses by pulling nearly 13,000 old vehicles out of long-term storage—and complementing these older vehicles with around 4,000 brand-new vehicles.

An entire US community is on edge as the Trump Administration drops deportation protections in conjunction with a fraud investigation implicating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Journalistic report. Includes news footage for purposes of commentary, criticism and analysis.

In a development that has rattled European capitals and raised alarms across NATO, the Pentagon has abruptly halted its working-level communications with Germany’s Defense Ministry, effectively severing one of the alliance’s most important military coordination channels. The revelation, reported by The Atlantic, comes from German Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, who described the sudden silence from Washington as both unprecedented and deeply worrying. According to Freuding, communications that once flowed freely “day and night” between U.S. and German military officials have now been cut off entirely. Messages go unanswered. Routine coordination has stopped. And Germany — a central pillar of Europe’s...

“He spoke many things to them in parables” (Matthew 13:3). The parable was one of the staple teaching tools the Lord Jesus used to convey spiritual truth in an understandable way. The word parable contains the idea of placing something alongside something else to make a comparison. In this way, Jesus would place a moral truth alongside a physical example that people could more easily grasp. By this common form of Jewish teaching, He used a common object or practice to elucidate an intangible truth or principle. From His earliest teaching sessions, Christ used graphic analogies to instruct on divine...

In the ninth annual joint Pew Research Center and Körber-Stiftung surveys of the United States and German publics, we find profound changes in perceptions of the bilateral relationship. These are the first surveys in this series conducted since Donald Trump began his second term as U.S. president and Friedrich Merz became chancellor of Germany.Key findings:

United States House of Representatives District 7 Favorite Race: United States House of Representatives District 7 Final Unofficial Results Final Unofficial Results 14 of 14 Counties Completed Final Unofficial Results Matt Van Epps (R)✔ 96,988 Aftyn Behn (D) 81,044 Jon Thorp (I) 932 Teresa "Terri" Christie (I) 610 Bobby Dodge (I) 196 Robert James Sutherby (I) 129

An Alabama town angrily shot down plans to build a Muslim school in their area, with locals citing the 'cultural takeover' of Muslims in a Michigan city and as far away as the UK. Residents of Hoover in suburban Birmingham showed up in force at a zoning commission meeting Monday as the board voted on whether to allow the Islamic Academy to transform a local office building into a school and community center. Around 170 locals attended the meeting, with many opposing a motion to move the existing Islamic Academy in Homewood to Hoover. Citing traffic concerns and questioning the...

A New York pastor surprised churchgoers with the extraordinary revelation that he is transitioning into a woman and will now use she/her pronouns. Reverend Phil Phaneuf, 51, who was born male, shared that she has been undergoing a gender transition with her congregation at North Chili United Methodist Church (UMC) during Sunday service. 'I get to announce with joy that I am transitioning. I am affirming and saying to all of you that I am transgender,' the veteran pastor, wearing a rainbow stole, declared this past Sunday. 'The best way to put this is that I'm not becoming a woman,...

“Some people will correct me. They love to correct me. Even though I’m right about everything,” President Trump was saying, but no one was about to correct the President at this December cabinet meeting, the last in a series of extremely long such affairs that TV has carried this year. At this point, YouTube might as well set up a 24-hour livestream from inside the White House, like the sorts of stunts that were popular at the dawn of the personal video era. Trump is always with us, and talking at us. Before the roundtable of cabinet members listing their...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to...

More AI humor, but this one is terrific! If you don't like AI humor, don't watch. You've been warned.

Abortion activists in South Carolina have been caught on an undercover video taking a 15-year-old girl to an abortion center for a secret abortion. Undercover footage released by the pro-life group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust exposes a multi-state abortion fund secretly transporting a minor for an abortion two hours away, despite the parent’s clear disapproval. The video, captured by an undercover journalist posing as a 15-year-old girl, shows interactions with abortion activists with the Palmetto State Abortion Fund. The footage documents the operation from pickup at the Myrtle Beach Mall to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Charleston that was...

My 11-year-old son joined the elementary school band, and so I went to the parents’ orientation night held at a local high-school. As the night went on it became obvious why young men rage against the larger social system and why they might find a character like Nick Fuentes attractive. The classrooms were inundated with DEI messages and trans pride flags. On the walls there were posters, stickers and decorations that all invoked the various totems of diversity. Black Lives Matter messaging, decolonization messaging, LGBTQ+ messaging and basically every sort of race and gender social justice messaging you can imagine...

[Catholic / Orthodox Caucus] Pope Leo XIV issues joint blessing with Orthodox Patriarch BartholomewPope Leo concluded his two-day trip to Turkey with a shared blessing alongside Patriarch Bartholomew I before flying out to Beirut, Lebanon.As part of the last public act of his apostolic journey to Turkey, Pope Leo XIV imparted an ecumenical blessing together with the Eastern Patriarch Bartholomew I.On November 30, Pope Leo XIV and Patriarch Bartholomew I appeared on the square of the Church of Saint George in Constantinople to bless the crowd in turn, in Latin and in Greek, respectively. Afterward, they took each other by...