Free Republic

@RandPaul Exposing waste. Defending liberty. Holding Washington accountable.

A Christian rally and concert hosted by the conservative group MAYDAY USA in Cal Anderson Park on Saturday afternoon descended into chaos after Antifa militants showed up to clash with attendees, resulting in 23 arrests. The event, branded by organizers as the “#DontMessWithOurKids” rally, began around 2 pm and drew the attention of the radicals for its mission, including defending the “sanctity of human life,” “biological gender,” and “freedom of religion.” Antifa and left-wing counter-protesters showed up in park, the same location of 2020's deadly Capitol Hill protest (CHOP), accusing MAYDAY USA of promoting “fascist family values” and holding the...

Aven Thomas began medically transitioning from female to male in 2021, just months after then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order allowing transgender people to serve openly in the U.S. military. The result was so gratifying for the U.S. Army specialist that he compared it to turning on a light in pitch darkness. “When you feel at your best,” he added, “you are able to perform your best.”

A massive Russian drone-and-missile attack targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other regions in the country for a second consecutive night, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens, officials said early Sunday. The scale of the onslaught was stunning — Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, making this the largest single aerial attack of the more than three-years-long war, according to Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force. In all, Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed drones, he told The Associated Press. It was “the most massive strike in...

A battle is brewing over an Oakland neighborhood's do-it-yourself solution to stopping speeders and sideshows. Residents said they were fed up and fought back with their own speed bumps, but the city said that fix won't fly. Earlier this week, the city's Department of Transportation (DOT) tore up the homemade speed bumps at East 21st Street and 19th Avenue. Residents installed them out of desperation eight months ago after claiming they pled with the city for four years to address dangerous sideshows in the area and nothing was done. "We've had peace for the past eight months, a hard peace,"...

25 May 2025 6th Sunday of Easter St. Bede Catholic Church - Kelly, KansasReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).If the Ascension of the Lord is going to be celebrated next Sunday, the alternative Second Reading and Gospel shown here (which would otherwise have been read on that Sunday) may be used today.First readingActs 15:1-2,22-29It has been decided by the Spirit and by ourselves not to burden you with any burden beyond these essentialsSome men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, ‘Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.’ This led...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1. Purpose. The United States originally pioneered nuclear energy technology during a time of great peril. We now face a new set of challenges, including a global race to dominate in artificial intelligence, a growing need for energy independence, and access to uninterruptible power supplies for national security. It took nearly 40 years for the United States to add the same amount of nuclear capacity as another developed nation added in 10 years. Further, as American...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that there were “more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid.” Johnson said, “We are not cutting Medicaid in this package. There‘s a lot of misinformation out there about this.” He continued, “The numbers of Americans who are affected are those that are entwined in our work to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. And what do I mean by that? You got more than 1.4 million illegal aliens on Medicaid. Medicaid is not intended for non-U.S. citizens. It‘s intended for the most vulnerable populations of Americans, which...

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — A pack of veterinarians clambered over hefty metal crates on Tuesday morning, loading them one by one onto a fleet of semi-trucks. Among the cargo: tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions – all fleeing the latest wave of cartel violence eclipsing the northern Mexican city of Culiacan. For years, exotic pets of cartel members and circus animals have been living in a small refuge on the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital. However, a bloody power struggle erupted last year between rival Sinaloa cartel factions, plunging the region into crippling levels of violence and leaving the leaders of...

In a candid discussion, Harris acknowledged he used to defend Biden’s mental acuity by separating the president’s communication struggles from his decision-making abilities. “It’s at least intelligible to say, ‘Okay, he’s not a good communicator. He was never a good communicator, he’s only getting worse,’” Harris said. “You can’t reliably stick him in front of a microphone and trust that something good is gonna come out of his mouth.” Harris once accepted the idea that while Biden fumbled public speaking engagements, he was still competent when it came to deliberating important issues in private. “The truth is… when you sit...

I just saw the greatest performance of our National Anthem ever. Incredible emotional. Race about to begin

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a fiscal hawk who has openly criticized House Republicans' reconciliation bill, predicted Sunday that there are enough in his flock to stop the process "until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit." The big picture: Pushing President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" through the House was far from a painless process, but the fiscal package now heads to the Senate, where the chamber is likely to make changes. Johnson, who has not held back in his criticism of the bill championed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), characterized the GOP-only legislation as "the...

"Aie a Mwana" is the debut single by Bananarama, released in 1981. Bananarama - "Aie A Mwana" [1981, One Irish and two Brit lasses sing in Swahili]

OpenAI said it was buying IO, a start-up founded by Mr. Ive, the designer of the iPhone, to usher in a new era of artificial intelligence hardware. The deal, which is OpenAI’s biggest acquisition, will bring in Mr. Ive and his team of roughly 55 engineers and researchers. LoveFrom will assume creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and build hardware that helps people better interact with the technology. In a joint interview, Mr. Ive and Mr. Altman declined to say what such devices could look like and how they might work, but they said they hoped to share details next...

The bodies of five skiers have been found by rescuers near Switzerland's luxury Zermatt resort. They were recovered a day after emergency services were alerted by a group of climbers ascending the Rimpfischhorn - a 4,199-metre peak in the Valais Alps - to several pairs of skis left unattended near the summit. Aerial and ground searches led to the discovery of the bodies below the summit on the Adler Glacier, Valais local police said in a statement on Sunday. The victims were found at varying altitudes on avalanche debris in high altitude areas near the Swiss-Italian border. Three bodies were...

William F. Buckley Jr.’s centenary arrives as free speech falters and truth-telling grows perilous—a reminder that every generation must fight anew for civilization’s soul. William F. Buckley, Jr., who died in February 2008, would have been 100 years old in November of this year. There are many tributes planned to celebrate his centenary. The huge, authorized biography by Sam Tanenhaus will be out in just a few weeks. I will not say anything about that book apart from noting that its subtitle—“The Life and the Revolution That Changed America”— is apt. For five or six years at the end of...

It is painful but also amusing to watch high-ranking Democrats and media personalities struggle to find culprits for their loss in 2024. Everybody but the Biden family agrees that the fault is Joe Biden’s for insisting that he possessed sufficient mental acuity and physical strength to seek and serve a second term. But did staffers hide the truth from the world? Did Democratic VIPs on Capitol Hill and elsewhere owe it to the country to say openly that they couldn’t support Mr. Biden’s re-election effort? The answer to both questions is yes, and some key figures in the administration had...

The point of gay marriage from the viewpoint of liberal social engineers is to desecrate the concept of holy matrimony and to render it ludicrous so that it can no longer serve as the backbone of civilization. Progressives continue to progress on this front: The president of Whitman College late last month presided over the marriage between a senior at the school and her Whitman alum “wusband.” The “wusband” is the one who wears the pants in a lesbian parody of a family. President Sarah Bolton officiated the nuptials of Lita Bacus and “nonbinary lesbian” Fi Black at which “I...

As a place on a map, Bohemia is roughly half of what we call the Czech Republic today. As a neighbourhood or a state of mind it can be found all over the world, in big cities, where it suddenly coalesces in insalubrious districts, flourishes briefly, raises the value of the real estate and then dies off in a flurry of media coverage regretting how these things never last. When a Bohemia dies it usually leaves behind a few architectural remnants, a historical plaque or two, maybe even a museum, and a venerable and overpriced tourist trap like a café...

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is under scrutiny following her initial refusal to condemn the recent murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21. When approached by reporters for comment, Omar declined, stating, "I'm going to go for now." Later that day, Omar posted on social media expressing that she was "appalled" by the shooting and extended thoughts and prayers to the victims' families. However, critics argue that her response lacked a direct condemnation of the attack. White House Press Secretary...