Free Republic

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird hardly needs an introduction, as I expect everyone in the world has read it, or has seen the film starring Gregory Peck. (If you haven’t read it, perhaps you should.) Lee, incidentally, went to visit the film set, and had this to say about Peck: “an inspired performance. In some mysterious way, Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch transcended illusion.” If that seems a tad clichéd and not especially insightful, then I’m afraid to say that this is the general tenor of the nonfiction pieces in The Land of Sweet Forever , alongside eight previously unseen...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday that it had made dozens of arrests in New Orleans just one day after launching Operation Catahoula Crunch, the latest federal immigration operation cracking down on criminal illegal immigrants. "Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "In just 24 hours on the ground, our law enforcement officers have arrested violent criminals with rap sheets that include homicide, kidnapping, child abuse, robbery, theft and assault." [snip] The men, all with criminal histories,...

Minnesota Democratic lawmakers, including the Attorney General, were handed over $53,000 in campaign contributions by fraudsters who ripped off taxpayer cash meant to feed children. AG Keith Ellison, his councilman son, mayor Jacob Frey, Representative Ilhan Omar and others received cash from the scammers who siphoned off some $250 million, largely through nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Many did so after meeting the crooks, raising questions about how much they knew. “I’m not here because I think it’s going to help my re-election,” Ellison said during an encounter with Somali business leaders, two of whom later became criminal defendants linked to...

An analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly known as Obamacare, has unveiled massive fraud that could be costing American taxpayers billions of dollars, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released on Dec. 3. Under the program, the federal government pays credits to health insurance companies, called advance premium tax credit (APTC), on behalf of eligible Obamacare participants to reduce their monthly premium payments. In plan year 2024, almost $124 billion in such credits is estimated to have been paid out to insurance companies, accounting for around 19.5 million enrollees. The GAO report...

Gov. Tim Walz is promoting a new government assistance program open to illegal immigrants in Minnesota, as he faces scrutiny for allegedly allowing statewide welfare fraud, reportedly committed primarily by Somali immigrants. The Minnesota Paid Family and Medical Leave Program (PMFL), which Walz signed into law and is publicly praising ahead of its start date on Jan. 1, will cover “undocumented workers,” according to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. Employers are required to display a PFML poster at their respective workplaces to notify employees about the paid leave program. The poster must be displayed in any foreign language that is...

Boeing came under increasing scrutiny in the popular press in the wake of a series of reported incidents and accidents involving aircraft it manufactured… Perhaps the most glaring production deficiency occurred in October 2022, when Boeing provided a MAX plane for Alaska Airlines. Workers at Boeing had apparently forgotten to reinstall four bolts that keep a piece known as a door plug in place on the 737 MAX. It was removed to allow three contractors from a temporary staffing company hired by Spirit AeroSystems, the company’s production partner and supplier, to rework defective rivets… The problems at Boeing were due...

The Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for Texas to use its redrawn congressional map, a major victory for Republicans who could gain as many as five seats in the 2026 midterm elections. In an unsigned order, the justices granted Texas' emergency request to block a three-judge federal district court ruling that barred the map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. "Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state," Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. "This map reflects the political climate of our state and is a...

Donald Trump has replaced the chief architect in charge of designing his grandiose $300 million White House ballroom. The president replaced James McCrery II and his architecture firm back in late October, according to the Washington Post. Behind the scenes, Trump and McCrery battled over the commander-in-chief’s desire to keep increasing the size of the new building. One source said Trump decided to replace the esteemed designer after McCrery’s firm repeatedly missed deadlines and its small workforce made progress difficult. Trump's ballroom, paid for by big tech donors including Amazon and Google, is described as 90,000 square feet in official...

While giant tech companies like Google and Amazon tout the billions they’re pouring into AI infrastructure, IBM’s CEO doubts their bets will pay off like they think. Arvind Krishna, who has been at the helm of the legacy tech company since 2020, said even a simple calculation reveals there is “no way” tech companies’ massive data center investments make sense. This is in part because data centers require huge amounts of energy and investment, Krishna said on the Decoder podcast.Goldman Sachs estimated earlier this year that the total power usage by the global data center market stood at around 55...

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang presented Joe Rogan’s audience with a vision of AI so dominant it could rewrite reality itself.Huang layed out a future where human knowledge completely takes a backseat to silicon brains in the very near future.“In the future… maybe two or three years, 90% of the world’s knowledge will likely be generated by AI,” Huang told Rogan, his tone matter-of-fact as if charting tomorrow’s weather.NVIDIA CEO blows Joe Rogan away with a staggering prediction about AI. HUANG: “In the future… maybe two or three years, 90% of the world’s knowledge will likely be generated by AI.” ROGAN:...

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested an Afghan national on suspicion of providing support to the ISIS terrorist group, the third such arrest in a week, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement.Jaan Shah Safi was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Waynesboro, Virginia. Safi is an “illegal alien terrorist who entered the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2021, in Philadelphia” under President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program, the statement said.He had applied for Temporary Protected Status, but his application was terminated once DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ended TPS for Afghans.The TPS was terminated in May...

The ‘cement-coated’ YKJ-1000 could prove ‘formidably competitive’ internationally if sold at the relatively cheap price of US$99,000Chinese aerospace firm Lingkong Tianxing unveiled a hypersonic glide missile last week that has a range of up to 1,300 km (800 miles) and a top speed of Mach 7. The YKJ-1000 has been nicknamed the “cement-coated” missile for its use of civilian-grade materials such as foamed concrete in its heat-resistant coating. According to slides widely circulated online, the unit production cost of this missile, already in mass production after successful combat trials, may be as low as 700,000 yuan (around US$99,000). A single...

When 200 federal agents raided dozens of Minnesota homes and businesses on Jan. 20, 2022, policy analyst Bill Glahn took notice. So did a lot of other people—at first.Aimee Bock (C), founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future, arrives at the Minneapolis federal courthouse with her attorney, Ken Udoibok (R) in Minneapolis on March 19, 2025. Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via APAn initial blast of news coverage trumpeted an emerging multimillion-dollar welfare-fraud scandal. Then “it just vanished from the radar” of most media outlets and public consciousness, Glahn told The Epoch Times. “The stories just dried...

Image released by FBIThis morning Ed wrote about the arrest of a suspect in the January 6 pipe bomb case. His name is Brian Cole Jr. and when Ed Morrisey covered the story there wasn't much information about who he was or what might have motivated him. Later in the day we're starting to get a pretty clear picture. In fact, let's start with a picture.Accused DC pipe-bomber Brian Cole Jr.’s face unmasked for first time after arrest in resurfaced photo https://t.co/nPU5GLtwZn pic.twitter.com/4ozgPNS2g7— New York Post (@nypost) December 4, 2025The NY Post explained where the photo came from:Cole’s mother shared...

The minority Liberal government has struck a deal with Bloc Québécois to “eliminate long-standing Criminal Code safeguards for freedom of expression and religious freedom in exchange for the Bloc supporting Bill C-9,” according to the National Post. Currently, the law exempts hateful or antisemitic speech if it based in good faith on the interpretation of a religious text, but that immunity is set to be removed. Additionally, the Liberals are expected to back off plans to eliminate the need for a provincial attorney general’s sign-off to pursue a hate-propaganda prosecution. The removal of the religious exception clause is being driven...

Democrats and the media have been trying to whip up a story about the Trump administration taking out drug boats. They thought they had something with a story from the Washington Post that claimed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike on a drug boat when there were survivors in the water. I reported how Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) made troubling comments about the military "may help save us from this president and his lame people like Hegseth" because their "commitment is to the Constitution and obviously not to Trump." He was saying that in response to questions...

Podcast host Candace Owens' predictable response to the invitation by "The Charlie Kirk Show" producer Blake Neff over her numerous "evil" accusations surrounding Kirk's assassination has prompted accusations of "cowardice" and more.As RedState reported on Wednesday, Neff posted a video on X calling out Owens for her "reckless disregard for the truth" and the "evil" lies he said she's made about the killing of the late co-founder of Turning Point USA, which even includes Owens suggesting Kirk's friends and organizations allegedly knew and approved of his murder.READ MORE: Gauntlet Thrown: The Charlie Kirk Show Dissects Candace Owens' 'Evil Lies' About...

For years now, manufacturers have been beholden to "CAFE" fuel standards that force them to increase the average fuel efficiency of their fleets. This has forced automakers to make engines needlessly complex (ie, expensive to fix). Ironically, to avoid regulations imposed on smaller vehicles, it has also led automakers to make their trucks larger and larger, and/or abandoning entire production lines, like Ford did with its sedans.

Steve Cropper, the guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated Memphis backing band Booker T. and the MG's at Stax Records and co-wrote the classics Green Onions, (Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, has died. He was 84. Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, said Cropper´s family told her that Cropper died on Wednesday in Nashville. The foundation operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, located at the site of the former Stax Records, where Cropper worked for years. A cause of death was not immediately...

"Hansen-Mueller Co., a major Nebraska grain dealer operating nine elevators and four port terminals across the Midwest, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 17, 2025, leaving farmers, cooperatives, and agribusinesses across 34 states facing unpaid claims totaling millions of dollars. CEO Josh Hansen stated the court-supervised process would facilitate "an orderly sale of our assets for the benefit of our creditors, employees, and all stakeholders." The filing exposed vulnerabilities in rural supply chains and raised urgent questions about recovery prospects for thousands of Creditors." (Full story at link)