Free Republic

An estimated 50,000 people descended on Pickens, South Carolina, on Saturday for former President Donald Trump’s rally, according to the city’s police chief. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal’s Bob Montgomery first reported on Chief Randall Beach’s estimation on Sunday morning.Though estimates varied among different sources it quickly became apparent that a large crowd would build. Montgomery noted: Pre-rally estimates of 10,000 to 30,000 were made. During his remarks, Trump claimed the turnout was 75,000. Beach said he needed to get an accurate count from the Secret Service before providing a final number. Around 11 a.m., a secret service agent told the News...

CLIVE, Iowa (CNN) - A family who lost their home in a tornado is feeling grateful after winning a $2 million Powerball jackpot. Tammy Gordy said she realized they’d won big when she used the Iowa Lottery mobile app over the weekend to check some lottery tickets she had in her purse. She was in complete shock when the results of one of her tickets showed they were suddenly millionaires. Iowa’s newest Powerball winner says she plans to use part of her winnings to finish the family’s home they are building. According to the Iowa Lottery, Gordy lived in the...

A one-time top spokesman for former President Donald Trump says she saw the embattled Republican show off classified documents to guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Stephanie Grisham, who served as both White House communications director and press secretary — as well as press secretary and chief of staff to then-first lady Melania Trump — made the claim on MSNBC’s “Alex Witt Reports” Saturday when asked about her former boss’s alleged mishandling of the top secret files. “I watched him show, uh, documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio. So, he has no respect for classified information. Never...

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) quietly announced the release of additional records regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. “In accordance with President Biden’s memorandum of June 30, 2023 the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) posted all documents with newly released information subject to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992,” the National Archives said in a press release. “On December 15, 2022, President Biden directed agencies to jointly review remaining redactions in records, disclosing all information except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise,” the press release continued. “NARA worked in concert...

Anheuser-Busch’s botched promotion featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has led to the closure of two glass bottling plants operated by Ardagh Group, a global glass producer and contractor for the company. As Bud Light continues to face significant financial losses and declining sales, approximately 645 employees will be laid off as a result of the plant closures in North Carolina and Louisiana, according to WRAL. While the bottling company did not officially disclose the reason behind the closures, an investigation by WRAL revealed that the plants are shutting down due to plummeting Bud Light sales. Nationwide boycotts in response to...

One man's Independence, another man's Treason.

A California company building a flying electric car is now taking preorders. Alef Aeronautics’ flying car has been given a Special Airworthiness Certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), meaning the company will be allowed to road/air test the car, the company said in a news release. The fully-electric vehicle (with a hydrogen option for a higher price) is a low-speed vehicle that can be driven up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a regular garage, but it can also launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles, according to Alef’s website. The...

Drena De Niro's son Leandro De Niro Rodriguez has died, the actress — whose father is legendary actor Robert De Niro — shared on Instagram Sunday night. In an emotional post, the 51-year-old actress wrote: “My beautiful sweet angel. I have loved you beyond words or description from the moment I felt you in my belly. “You have been my joy my heart and all that was ever pure and real in my life. I wish I was with you right now. I wish I was with you. I don’t know how to live without you but I’ll try to...

[Catholic Caucus] Poetry inspired by the Synod on Synodality: "Our monotonous talk"Synod.va asked for people to compose poetry inspired by the synodal process. The following, with apologies to and admiration for T.S. Eliot, was submitted by James Baresel, author of many excellent articles on the traditional Mass. -- PAKWe are the hollow synodWe are the bloated synodWalking togetherHeads filled with straw.Our monotonous talk, whenWe gather togetherIs loud and meaninglessLike Bernard HäringOr when women are wearingPriestly vestments.Religion without morals, without divine judgement,An almost spent force, Modernism in motion.Saints of past agesWho crossed into heavenThink of us as lostCruel souls and asThe...

A disturbing report from the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network suggested that a gay couple in California wanted the surrogate mother carrying their child to abort after the woman was given a grim cancer diagnosis. According to CBC president and founder Jennifer Lahl, the unnamed woman agreed to carry a child for an unidentified gay couple in California. The woman is a married mother of four who had already volunteered to be a surrogate mother once before and had a good experience, so she decided to try and help again. This time, the experience went horribly wrong, starting when...

The huge extent of damage and vandalism caused in nearly a week of nightly riots in France has been dramatically underlined with a summary of recorded burnings so far, with the toll running to thousands of vehicles and buildings. Ministry of the Interior figures taking account of damage to people and property during the now six nights of riots triggered by the shooting death by a police officer of an Algerian heritage teenager in a Paris suburb at a traffic stop reveals there have been 5,662 vehicle fires so far, reports Le Parisien.

The self-proclaimed "Never Again Trumper" Paul Ryan once praised President Donald J. Trump on CNBC's "Squawk Box," April 17, 2018 -- chatting with Joe Kernen. This is a dramatically different face than what Breitbart recently reported about Ryan, on the same Squawk Box program, with some very harsh things to say about the former president (chatting with Joe Kernan). Here is the Breitbart account of those mean-spirited comments:Ryan said, “It is a disaster if we nominate Trump. You know I think that. I have been saying that for a long time. But Liz [Cheney]is right, which is, that he could...

The Navy's tough recruiting year means that its recruiters will be working more days, and the service is considering longer tours of duty as it struggles to put more sailors into uniform. A Navy spokesman confirmed that Rear Adm. Alexis Walker -- the head of recruiting command -- has ordered all recruiters to work a six-day workweek after Navy emails announcing the change began to surface on social media. In an email that was sent to the whole of Navy Recruiting Command, Walker said the command couldn't "wait a minute longer" to make the change. Lt. Cmdr. Rich Parker, a...

Did you hear? There’s a “crisis” in the courts. Unelected justices are pushing a conservative agenda and “making up” law as they . . . make decisions with which most Americans agree. An ABC News/Ipsos poll taken after the most recent Supreme Court rulings found that 52% agree with the court’s striking down of affirmative action. Only 32% disagree, with 16% saying they don’t know. On the question of President Biden’s massive giveaway on student loans, the public is more polarized — yet more people than not agree with the court shooting it down, 45% to 40%. Biden’s reaction? “This...

In the late 1960s, affirmative action was advanced because women and minorities, with similar skills to those of White men, were being discriminated against in landing jobs. The object of affirmative action was to level the playing field for people with similar skill levels. Over the years studies have shown that women actually have benefited most from affirmative action, not African Americans. But over the years affirmative action has evolved into a matter strictly of race: Black people get preferential treatment, period. Why has it evolved so? Since its origin, liberals, both White and Black, have actively denigrated African American...

President Trump, who has now been indicted over his handling of classified records, said in 2016 that a president under an indictment would cause a constitutional crisis, statements first noted by a CNN KFile review. Trump made the comments about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a rally in Reno, Nev., on Nov. 5, 2016, KFILE noted. “We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial,” Trump said at the rally. “It would grind government to a halt.” Trump’s remarks came just days after then-FBI director James Comey announced that the bureau was re-launching...

I was hoping that the week of July 4th would start off with fireworks, but we got bad news about the economy. US factory activity contracted for an eighth month in June, slipping to the weakest level in more than three years as production, employment and input prices retreated. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge fell to 46, the weakest since May 2020, from 46.9 a month earlier, according to data released Monday. The current stretch of readings below 50, which indicates shrinking activity, is the longest since 2008-2009. The decline in the ISM production gauge, which also stands...

President Donald Trump celebrated a big week of Supreme Court rulings that handed conservatives a slate of long-awaited victories on issues like religious freedom, college admissions, and student loan forgiveness.While delivering remarks to the Moms for Liberty: Joyful Warrior National Summit, Trump heralded the court’s decision to end race-based college admissions in their Thursday decision that deemed affirmative action unconstitutional. On Thursday, SCOTUS struck down the decades-old race-based admissions protocol in a suit involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.PACKED house here in Philadelphia for President Trump! pic.twitter.com/180plgfeC9— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) June 30, 2023Trump joked that this might...

Law guarantees Veterans receive a compensation adjustment next year On June 14, 2023, President Joe Biden signed into law the Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Act of 2023, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for Veterans benefits in 2024 equal to the COLA applied to Social Security benefits, as determined by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The legislation, passed with bi-partisan support in the House and Senate, is an annual procedure for Congress but an important one, as it must be accomplished to ensure Veterans receive a COLA, and that it keeps pace with...

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Steele last week said that he thought the GOP would have more power in Congress if the party “had our &*^& together.” “Do Democrats understand how freaking lucky they’ve been that the Republican Party is so bats–t, Trumpy crazy?” former Republican presidential candidate Joe Walsh asked Steele on an episode of his podcast “White Flag,” released last week, referencing former President Trump. “I don’t think they recognize that if we had our *(*( together, this wouldn’t even be close,” Steele said. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “would be sitting there with about...