Free Republic

Donald Trump is leading Joe Biden in key swing states ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to a new opinion poll, amid fresh doubts about the incumbent's fitness for office. The voter survey conducted by Echelon Insights found that 48 percent of swing state voters would back the 77-year-old real estate mogul in next year's vote. Pollsters, who interviewed 1,020 voters for the study, said just 41 percent would back Biden over the former president.

Bill De Blasio was spotted leaving his New York townhouse in an Uber first thing on Wednesday - shortly after announcing his split from his lesbian wife Chirlane McCray in a toe-curling interview. The former New York City Mayor, 62, also tweeted to describe their separation as a 'love story' - while 68-year-old McCray emerged from the home they will continue to share to say the split was 'the right decision for us'. In a fawning New York Times interview, the couple cited myriad reasons for the split - from the strain of de Blasio overseeing America's biggest city during...

The Unraveling of the Censorship Hegemon The US Constitution was ratified in 1789. Nine years later, in a fit of frenzy over enemies domestic and foreign, the US Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Sedition Act in particular imposed nationwide censorship edicts that made it illegal to criticize the government or its officials. The public was so furious about the obvious attack on the First Amendment that Thomas Jefferson was swept into the White House in the election of 1800, with a specific mandate to end the outrage. The offending laws were promptly repealed. The significance of the...

The U.S. Navy deterred Iranian forces from seizing two commercial tankers on Wednesday in separate incidents. First, at about 1 a.m. local time, an Iranian navy vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. It departed when the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived at the scene, the U.S. 5th Fleet announced on Wednesday. Approximately three hours later, another Iranian vessel began harassing the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager in international waters roughly 20 miles off the coast of Muscat, Oman. It opened fire with both small arms and crew-served...

Missouri pro-life advocates celebrated another victory for life Friday when a judge blocked the city of St. Louis from forcing taxpayers to support killing unborn babies in abortions. The preliminary injunction from St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser blocks the city from spending $1.75 million in federal COVID-19 relief money on a new pro-abortion program, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “[Friday] was a momentous day for women and their unborn children as Missouri courts upheld state law standing for the sanctity of life,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey responded Saturday in a statement. “As long as I’m attorney...

A video captured a massive fight that broke out at Romare Bearden Park on Tuesday night. [coverage begins around the 0:55 mark.] Video shows brawl at Romare Bearden Park, police respond to ‘several fights’ [Charlotte, NC]

Despite strong, bipartisan backlash, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs doubled down Monday on a pro-abortion executive order that strips local prosecutors of their authority to investigate abortion cases. County prosecutors wrote to the governor Monday, saying the order sets a “dangerous precedent” and Hobbs should rescind it. The letter was a bipartisan effort, and all but three of the 15 county prosecutors signed it, according to the Washington Examiner. However, Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater rejected the prosecutors’ request a few hours later. “We will not rescind this order,” Slater said in a statement on Twitter. “Governor Hobbs will continue to use...

Pop singer Demi Lovato launched a bitter, profanity-laced song on the anniversary of the life-saving Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that stereotypes pro-life advocates as Christian men whose only goal is to control women’s bodies. Lovato, 30, named her song “Swine,” a description that dehumanizes pro-life advocates as well as unborn babies. The former Disney star did not mention women either, instead referring to pregnant mothers as “birthing people.” “It’s been one year since the Supreme Court’s decision to dismantle the constitutional right to safe abortion, and although the path forward will be challenging, we must continue to be united in...

FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee next Wednesday, the committee announced on Wednesday. The hearing will be to “examine the politicization of the nation’s preeminent law enforcement agency under the direction of FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland,” according to a notice put out by the committee. The hearing will take place Wednesday, July 12, at 10:00 a.m.

A pair of Memphis thugs beat up an elderly woman on her front porch and killed her cat.“Give me your car keys. If you don’t, I’ll kill you,” the thugs reportedly told the elderly woman.Police say Mrs. Holland was the fifth victim that day of the thugs. And they are reportedly still on the loose.Even if the catch the bad guys, there’s a good chance they will be back out on the streets by the end of the day.Memphis is controlled by a pro-criminal district attorney who supports bail reform. His name is Steve Mulroy — a George Soros wannabe.My...

It should be “completely unacceptable” for banks to close accounts on “political grounds”, a Home Office minister has said, as Conservatives weighed in on a so-called freedom of speech row prompted by claims from Nigel Farage. Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, was speaking in parliament after the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, urged regulators to take action against banks that shut off access to people with controversial views. Farage, the former Brexit party and Ukip leader who is now a presenter on GB News, claimed last week that he was considering leaving Britain because he had been told by his bank...

The IRS has quietly changed the rules around taxes on inheritances, putting Americans in danger of being caught out if they try to transfer assets to their children. The agency has curbed the tax break on a particular kind of trust often used to minimize estate taxes. Prior to the new instruction, it was unclear what the tax policies were around assets passing to beneficiaries through an irrevocable trust. But the Revenue Ruling 2023-2 has confirmed that these trusts will now be subject to capital gains tax, which will have a substantial impact on estate planning for Americans

It’s hard to dislike Judith Butler. If you’ve ever taken a Gender Studies class, you’ve probably read their work at one point or another. The term “gender performativity” is practically ubiquitous in queer, trans, and feminist theory discourse...

Senator Bob Casey is not even pretending to be pro-life anymore. After campaigning as a pro-life Democrat every year since first being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, he has abandoned his position supporting protections for unborn babies. In a new interview with The Messenger, the Pennsylvania lawmaker rejected the pro-life label and referred to killing unborn babies in abortions as a “right.” Asked if he is still pro-life, Casey told the news outlet: “I don’t believe that the terminologies we used before Dobbs make much sense anymore. It’s almost the terminology of pre-Dobbs is antiquated.” The U.S. Supreme...

In a Fourth of July message, Ben & Jerry's called on the United States to "commit to returning" stolen Indigenous land. The company defends its activism and states on its website that its social mission is to "eliminate injustices in our communities by integrating these concerns into our day-to-day business activities." On Tuesday, the company marked the federal holiday celebrating the nation's founding by calling on the U.S. government to give back the "stolen Indigenous land" upon which the nation was formed, Ben & Jerry's said in an online statement that the company shared on Twitter. "This 4th of July,...

"Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated "Central Park Five," has won the Democratic primary, all but assuring him a seat on the New York City Council."

Donning a T-shirt with the message “Say NO to child support #ProChoiceMen,” pro-life advocate AJ Hurley trolled the Women’s March on Saturday in Washington, D.C. to expose abortion activists’ hypocrisy. Hurley posed as a male abortion activist at the march, using a megaphone to shout phrases like “Your body, your problem!” and “Keep your womb off my wallet” at the crowd. His stunt was part of Live Action’s new satirical video series #ProChoiceMen. The Women’s March supposedly focuses on rights and protections for women, but Hurley’s protest exposed how its support for abortion does the opposite. According to Live Action,...

Far-left Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) used Independence Day not to celebrate the ideals, risks, and sacrifices that led to the success of the great American experiment but to demand “reparations now.” July 4, the celebration of American independence and reminder of the revival of the very “Spirit of 1776,” appeared to be a dismal day for the leftist congresswoman, who seemingly dismissed the risks taken by the Founding Fathers and, rather, used the opportunity to demand reparations. “The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human. Today is a great day to demand Reparations...

Google quietly updated its privacy policy over the long July 4 holiday weekend to expand what it can do with user data, namely improve its artificial-intelligence abilities, according to tech blog Gizmodo. (snip) The policy change coincides with Twitter limiting how many tweets users can read daily, depending on their account status, which the Elon Musk-owned company partly justified to prevent "scraping people’s public Twitter data to build AI models."

Professing Christian model Hailey Baldwin Bieber has joined hundreds of celebrities in endorsing a public letter from GLAAD that calls for social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter to censor so-called anti-LGBTQ hate speech, including deadnaming, misgendering, and spreading ‘misinformation’ about ‘gender-affirming healthcare’ for trans teens. The letter, which is from “celebrities, influencers, and prominent public figures with significant followings on social media” includes such names as Patrick Stewart, Demi Lovato, Zooey Deschanel, Lena Dunham, Judd Apatow, Sam Smith, Jazz Jennings, Dylan Mulvaney, and Elliot Page. It argues that “dangerous posts (both content and ads) created and circulated...