Free Republic

Congressional Democrats on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees are demanding President Donald Trump explain why Ukrainian forces’ access to SpaceX Starshield services was restricted earlier this week. In a letter first reported by MS NOW, Rep. Jason Crow, D-Co., ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; Adam Smith, D-Wash., ranking member of the Select Committee on Intelligence; Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.; and Rep. George Whitesides, D-Calif., lambasted the Trump administration for refusing to respond to congressional inquiries on who directed changes to Ukraine’s access to Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink services. The lawmakers were not satisfied with...

Thieves swiped voters’ mail-in ballots from a post office in the Bay Area, sparking fears of election fraud after another theft of ballots last week. The San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder’s Office said in a Thursday press release that it was notified that the election forms were recently stolen from a US Postal Service Office in Daly City, including mail-in ballots from San Mateo County voters. The county, located just south of San Francisco, and the US Postal Service are actively investigating the theft. It’s unclear how many ballots were stolen, the county said. The county’s election division encouraged voters...

"You called Ukraine a disgrace for attacking Russia. You want Zelensky out. Have you forgotten that it's President Putin who started the war?" Guttierez asked. "Well, you know, I know the details, okay?" Trump answered. "And at some point, I'll release the details. But I don't care anything except for one. I want that war ended." "Twenty-five thousand soldiers on average a month are being killed. Last month, 32,000 soldiers," Trump said. "And I think the two leaders, I do, with both of them— I think they want that war ended, too. And I think it's going to end. That's...

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s father was a “feared” colonel in the Somali National Army (SNA), far from the “educator” he was presented to Americans as, a veteran who served in his regiment claimed to The Post. Nur Omar Mohamed has been accused of hiding his military past from US authorities when he arrived and claimed asylum with his family in 1995 — which could have disqualified him from claiming refugee status. A retired military officer still living in Somalia has spoken out for the first time to shed light on the “career soldier” who was a trusted operator in dictator Siad...

Guess what? You HAVE lived long enough to see an actual flying car.Amazing times indeed. We Went To The Tesla Roadster Event | 4K~Easy

WASHINGTON — President Trump said he dined Thursday night with comedian Bill Maher, musician Kid Rock and sports commentator Stephen A. Smith. “I think they had a good time. We talked about everything, it lasted a long time,” Trump told reporters Friday as he left the White House for a campaign trip to Georgia. “Even though they have to sort of put on a certain little facade for their people, they like Trump, and I actually like them. We had a great time.” “We even took a little tour of the ballroom. We went inside the ballroom with beams that...

The Justice Department under the Biden administration opened an investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, in 2024 to scrutinize her finances, campaign spending and interactions with a foreign citizen, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The inquiry, initiated by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the department’s public integrity unit in June of that year, appears to have stalled for lack of evidence, according to one of the people who requested anonymity to discuss internal department matters. The investigation appeared to be thrust into the public spotlight on Monday, when President Trump blindsided department officials...

A Washington state school district has agreed to publicly apologize, undergo religious liberty training and pay $275,000 in attorney’s fees after a lawsuit challenged policies that required elementary school students to keep Bibles concealed in sealed envelopes, according to a Christian education organization whose CEO says children felt pressured to hide their faith. Joel Penton, founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy, told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday that parents described the emotional toll of the Everett School District’s restrictions, which also included requiring families to submit permission slips every week for their children to attend voluntary, off-campus Bible...

Okay, so apparently Katie Zacharia didn't work out as press secretary. However, is there a chance she could have remained on that job if she wasn't so nervous at the get-go? In fact, could she have been able to get over that hump of first day nerves if she had been calmed down by just a few shots of whiskey (or rum or vodka)? I say this from some personal experience. I spent a couple of summers years ago traveling the race car circuit (NASCAR, Indy 500, and other car races) in the Midwest, East Coast, and the South. No...

A new poll of the Ohio Senate and gubernatorial races shows Democrats ahead in both contests. In the Senate race, a Bowling Green State University (BGSU) poll found former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) ahead of Sen. Jon Husted (R) by 6 points, 48 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters. When BGSU surveyed the race in September, Brown had just a 3-point lead. Ohio voters were evenly split 48 percent to 48 percent on who they think will win, regardless of whom they support. That is narrower than September, when more thought Husted would win. In the governor’s race, Democrat...

Kyiv lacks an answer, for now, to Moscow’s mass-produced new weapons In a field in central Ukraine, an experimental drone zoomed into the sky as engineers demonstrated its potential to intercept Russia’s jet-powered attack drones, which are tormenting the country. The prototype, called a Zirka, reached a top speed of 280 miles an hour as its propellers whirred frantically. Not fast enough, the testers acknowledged.“We still need to find a counter-jet solution,” said Lika Volovych, a manager at the Zirka’s manufacturer Noctis, as she watched it buzz high above.On the horizon, black smoke rose from a Russian drone strike on...

The Denver Post’s editorial board has come out against Amendment 87, the proposed graduated income tax ballot measure. In an Oct. 11 editorial, the board argued that extracting $2.7 billion in a single year from the state’s largest businesses would “do more harm than good.” While the board took exception to some opponents’ claims, such as the measure’s impact on businesses under $500,000 in taxable profit and on deductions for seniors and veterans, it concluded that the risk to Colorado’s largest employers outweighs the benefits. Citing conversations with Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce president J.J. Ament,...

President Volodymyr Zelensky used his appearance at the Oct. 16 summit of EU leaders in Brussels to list the main things Kyiv needs to survive the winter and beyond, but those asks won't come cheap. "I am grateful for your support for Ukraine," Zelensky told EU leaders. "Without a determined European Union capable of making strong decisions Putin would have gone much further by now," Zelensky said. But with Russia ramping up its use of ballistic missiles and jet-powered Shahed drones to pummel Kyiv, and the U.S. taking steps to undermine Russia sanctions and Ukrainian security, Zelensky also came to...

Bigger agencies, higher spending, and expanded workforces don't always make government more effective.My recent trip to Malibu from Los Angeles was my first post-wildfire drive through the Pacific Palisades and, my goodness, there's nothing like seeing something with one's own eyes to grasp the enormity of the devastation. The obliterated hulks along Pacific Coast Highway 21 months after the tragedy raise multiple issues, including ones related to the excruciatingly slow rebuilding process. This being California, the state has yet to grapple sufficiently with the reasons the wildfires started—and the failed response to them. But late is better than never, so...

HeeHaw's owner argues that “no reasonable officer…would have believed that such force was necessary or justified.”The Georgia officer responsible for killing a 1-year-old miniature donkey, HeeHaw, has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against him, claiming the body camera footage proves he "reasonably believed the donkey posed an imminent threat to a fellow officer." But even if it doesn't, the officer argues he is immune from liability. In the early morning hours of August 30, Hannah Michelle Israel was at her Cedartown home in western Georgia when she received a distressing phone call. A supervisor with the Cedartown Police...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A Center City woman was arrested after allegedly refusing to move out of the path of a delivery robot. The confrontation was captured on video and has since drawn online attention. Philadelphia police said officers responded to the 1200 block of Filbert Street after witnesses reported a disturbance involving Carolyn Marvin and an Uber delivery robot near Reading Terminal Market. According to police, Marvin repeatedly blocked the robot's path and ignored multiple commands from officers to move. She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Marvin tells Action News she was protesting the use of delivery robots...

Secretary Mullin and Commissioner Scott observed ongoing construction on secondary barriers and met with construction crews as the Trump Administration marked 17 months of ZERO releases of illegal aliens at the southern border. The latest data from CBP also revealed that Fiscal Year 2026 saw the lowest amount of border crossings of any fiscal year in American history. ...“Thanks to President Trump’s bold leadership, we have had ZERO illegal aliens released into our country for the past 17 straight months—that’s promises made, promises kept in action.” In Fiscal Year 2026, CBP completed construction of 250 miles of new border barrier...

[Catholic Caucus] The Modernist Gospel of Lived Experience: Rome Rediscovers the Heresy Condemned by St. Pius X At Leo XIV’s Vatican, theology is now said to emerge from people’s experiences. St. Pius X exposed this inversion of Catholic faith 119 years ago.The Modernists Are Finally Saying It Out LoudSometimes the Modernists make their intentions so obvious that one wonders why they bother dressing them up in theological jargon.During the October 14 Vatican press conference marking the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, Fr. Stanislaus Chu Ilo, a Nigerian theologian at DePaul University, offered this remarkable explanation of the theological revolution currently...

How the free market gets blamed for cronyism. Words have specific meanings. Unfortunately, capitalism is frequently misused by supporters and critics alike. Too often, what people defend or condemn is not free-market capitalism at all. Although distinctions exist among capitalism, free enterprise, and free market, for the purposes of this essay, I use capitalism to mean free-market capitalism: an economic system based on private property, voluntary exchange, competition, freedom of entry and association, and freedom of contract—including wages negotiated without government-imposed minimums. Government’s role is that of a referee: protecting property rights, enforcing contracts, and preventing force and fraud, not...

As smoking makes a comeback among Silicon Valley founders and engineers, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says some AI researchers are lighting up to signal their belief that the technology will cure cancer, calling it a form of “mass psychosis.” Speaking with Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan Sunday, Sankar argued that some people building artificial general intelligence (AGI) have developed an almost religious faith in the technology, while others’ warnings about its dangers are driven by their own ideological beliefs. The X account Fireside Alpha shared a clip. [Palantir CTO reveals AI researchers are taking up smoking to signal to other...