Free Republic

This Memorial Day, you could do much worse than remember John Basilone. Eighty years ago, the US military was grinding it out from one Japanese-held Pacific island to another in a brutal, costly campaign as gut-wrenching as any in American history. Basilone has an honored place in this story. Born in Buffalo and raised in New Jersey by his Italian-American parents, he enlisted in the Army in the 1930s as a teenager. Then, after a stint as a civilian, he signed up for the Marines in 1940. During the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942, he almost single-handedly held off a...

House Speaker Mike Johnson went to battle with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over spending cuts and the national debt in President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" this weekend. Johnson made the comments during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" with host Shannon Bream, after Paul had called the spending cuts in the current version of the bill "wimpy." "It sounds like his biggest objection is the fact that we are extending the debt ceiling. That's a critically important thing to do. We have to do it. We're not going to get any Democrats to assist on that," Johnson said Sunday....

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: ‘The Church is not called to create truth, but to receive it’Cardinal William Goh of Singapore voiced concerns that the ambiguity in papal teaching has led to confusion among bishops and disunity among the laity,' observes Bishop Strickland.I repeat these words from the prophet Amos because they are critical for our time. There has been much bending away from the plumb line of truth. It should be our only measure.“And the Lord said: Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people …” (Amos 7:8).In recent remarks, Cardinal William Goh of Sigapore...

A breathtaking flyover of nearly every United States Air Force fighter and bomber jet soared during a Florida air show Saturday, stunning footage of the historic aerial display showed. Seven of the top military aircraft, called the “Freedom Flyover,” united as “one unstoppable force” for thousands of people to take in over Memorial Day weekend at the Hyundai Air and Sea Show in Miami Beach. The historic formation was led by the B-2 stealth bomber and followed by the B-1B Lancer, B-52H Stratofortress, F-22 Raptor, F-15C Eagle, F-16C Fighting Falcon and the attack aircraft A-10 Thunderbolt II, according to Air...

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the organization as “a white nationalist hate group” to make conservatives seem radical. As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, charges were dropped against the Patriot Front group leader in Idaho after 22 duped recruits were found guilty in court. In June 2022, 31 members of the Patriot Front group were arrested in Idaho for planning a protest at the Gay Pride rally. They were traveling to a gay pride event with homemade shields in the back of a U-Haul. They had no other weapons. Despite committing no violence, they were arrested because they possibly...

This week, President Trump lambasted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa over the way his country is treating its farmers. The incident arose after Trump had granted refugee status to 59 white South African farmers who claim they are being discriminated against and threatened with expropriation of their property by the government and murder by anti-white racists. Ramaphosa tried to explain that "my country has passed a law legalizing the seizure of land for public purposes just like your country allows for land to be taken from owners to fulfill public purposes. How can you be outraged over it?" Trump pointed...

@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...