Free Republic

The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by Congress on July 5, 1775, to be sent to the King as a last attempt to prevent formal war from being declared. The Petition emphasized their loyalty to the British crown and emphasized their rights as British citizens. The Congress met according to adjournment. The Petition to the King being engrossed, was compared, and signed by the several members. To the king's most excellent Majesty: Most gracious sovereign, We, your Majesty's faithful subjects of the colonies of new Hampshire, Massachusetts bay, Rhode island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the...

Global Affairs says dozens of Canadians being held by U.S. immigration authoritiesRelatives of Canadians detained by ICE in the United States say they're furious and frustrated by the treatment of their loved ones and the battles they're having to fight for even the most basic information. Global Affairs Canada said it's aware of roughly 55 Canadians in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, though it said that the numbers can fluctuate. Cynthia Olivera — born in Mississauga, Ont., but living in Los Angeles — was arrested last month when she and her husband went to an immigration office to complete...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:16–17The parable above teaches us that even if someone were to faithfully understand and live the authentic Law that was given through Moses and the prophets, Jesus’ new teaching of grace, the New Law, was so...

5 July 2025Saturday of week 13 in Ordinary Time Santo Antônio Maria Zaccaria - Church in Rio de JaneiroReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingGenesis 27:1-5,15-29Jacob obtains Isaac's blessing by fraudIsaac had grown old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see. He summoned his elder son Esau. ‘My son!’ he said to him, and the latter answered, ‘I am here.’ Then he said, ‘See, I am old and do not know when I may die. Now take your weapons, your quiver and bow; go out into the country and hunt me some game. Make...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch and German intelligence agencies have gathered evidence of widespread Russian use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, including dropping a choking agent from drones to drive soldiers out of trenches so they can be shot, they said on Friday. Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans called for tougher sanctions against Moscow. "The main conclusion is that we can confirm Russia is intensifying its use of chemical weapons," he told Reuters. "This intensification is concerning because it is part of a trend we have been observing for several years now, where Russia's use of chemical weapons in...

A trip through Canada suggests that the country has been impoverished by its punitive taxation. Canadians have a taxing problem. And so do their hockey teams. No Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup in the past 32 years. Yet a Florida team has been in the Stanley Cup Finals for six consecutive years. Florida: The State of Hockey! This is not purely coincidence. Professional athletes, like all others of a competitive nature, like winning. And they don’t like surrendering millions of their hard-earned dollars to the government. Canada at large — and most of its provinces — impose significant...

VIDEOPoor Liberals. They are claiming that President Donald Trump and MAGA have RUINED their Fourth of July. How? Well, just listen to the MISINFORMATION they are spreading and you can see why they are now prisoners in their own tiny minds wracked with fantasy fear. Meanwhile the rest of the country CELEBRATED this Fourth of July chock full of a new HOPE and OPTIMISM as hasn't been felt in years.

FORT KNOX EXPOSED: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GOLD INSPECTION? — NO AUDIT, NO TRANSPARENCY, AND WHY DID TRUMP BACK DOWN? Where is America’s gold? Fort Knox hasn’t been fully audited since the 1950s — and in 2025, Trump promised an inspection, then suddenly backed down. No transparency. No answers. Just silence. This investigation asks the question no one in power dares to face: What are they hiding?… ….. Trump Promised Transparency. Then Walked Away. Why? Early in 2025, President Donald J. Trump announced plans to authorize a full audit of Fort Knox — the first in over 70 years. Supporters...

The influence of billionaires on American politics has never been more evident, with the wealthiest people in the US spending record amounts during the 2024 presidential election. Analysis by the Americans for Tax Fairness group earlier this year showed that 100 billionaire families donated $2.6 billion to candidates for last November's election, more than two-and-a-half times the amount spent in 2020. The billionaires "heavily favoured Republicans", the report said, with 70% of their donations going to the GOP, helping Donald Trump back into the White House. The "eye-popping amounts speak to the shifts in political power granted to the affluent...

Jonathan Capehart was filled with virtue signaling -- um, we mean righteous indignation! -- as he opened Saturday's edition of MSNBC's The Weekend. [snip] apehart then shifted his outrage to Trump's immigration policies: "The first immigrant detainees have arrived at the crudely named Alligator Alcatraz, human beings who are being kept in cages."What kind of heartless SOB could detain not just adults, but children, in these pictured conditions, and even defend it, saying he was "proud," adding: "If they’re good enough for our military, they’re good enough for these young people."Truly, Trump is the most despicable, callous, cold-hearted villain ever...

Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are once again joining forces to denounce President Donald Trump, this time for slashing international services they claim are critical to U.S. interests. Bush appears in a new video alongside Obama and U2 frontman Bono, a notorious Trump critic, praising the departing staffers of USAID, the international diplomacy arm that Trump gutted earlier this year. Bush was an advocate for funding the program to combat AIDS and HIV in parts of Africa. “Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy,” Obama said in a video shown to departing USAID employees on...

The Russian Ministry of Defence stated on Saturday that its armed forces destroyed two air defense platforms and two radar stations of the Patriot system. "Operational-tactical aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of groups of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation destroyed two launchers and two AN/MPQ-65 radar stations of the [United States] US-made Patriot anti-aircraft missile system," the ministry wrote on Telegram. It also shared that the Russian military's air defense systems managed to down a US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system, a Neptune long-range guided missile, three guided aerial bombs and 371...

It’s been a spectacular 2025 for precious metals so far. Will it continue into H2? With fiat currencies losing credibility, the answer is a resounding YES In quiet trading during a week foreshortened by US Independence Day, gold has held up well, while silver has been squeezed higher. In European trading this morning, gold was $4,340, up $65 from last Friday’s close and silver at $36.80 was up 86 cents. Monday was the last trading session of the first half of this calendar year, and precious metals have beaten the socks off all other investment categories. Platinum is up 47%,...

Chicagoans can’t catch a break when it comes to the cost of living—at least, according to a new study from home-goods pros Highland Cabinetry, which ranks the most overpriced cities in the U.S. Analyzing a diverse range of metrics that consider not only the cost of living but also the quality of life in the Windy City—including the exorbitant expense of housing, earned income, relative safety, traffic and so on—the study sourced its data from the likes of the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Zillow real estate stats. While Newark, New Jersey earned the number one spot for being the...

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville predicted Democrats would pick up 40 seats in the 2026 midterms after the GOP-led House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" this week.

Chicago, long infested with crime and poverty, keeps crawling ahead of its rivals to remain the champion of one more side effect of its decline. Pest control company Orkin said that the deep-blue Democrat-dominated city is top in the nation in bed bugs for the fifth consecutive year. Orkin bases its list on data from metro areas where the company has been called in to provide bed bug treatments between May 15, 2024, and May 14, 2025. Both residential and commercial calls are counted. ... Although Chicago remains on top, Orkin noted that Hartford, Connecticut, crawled onto its list of...

Just one day after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrapped up his self-indulgent “magic minute” marathon, the truth is starting to surface: Even many Democrats weren’t impressed. His hours-long fauxibuster—meant to stall the inevitable passage of the GOP’s One Big, Beautiful Bill—ended up accomplishing absolutely nothing for the Democrats’ cause. The only minds that were changed were Republicans who flipped from “no” to “yes.” Let’s not kid ourselves. This wasn’t some bold act of resistance or savvy legislative tactic. It was performative grandstanding, plain and simple—a desperate attempt to look like he’s fighting while doing absolutely nothing to stop the...

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the historic, deadly flooding spawned by Hurricane Agnes and its remnants in June 1972 across the eastern U.S., including the hardest-hit states of Pennsylvania and New York. Agnes was one of the largest June hurricanes to ever roam the Atlantic Basin. According to the National Hurricane Center, its circulation spanned about 1,150 miles in diameter.

When Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, many Democrats were less than thrilled. Mamdani’s views were too radioactive. The last thing Democratic leadership wanted was to be seen defending someone so far outside the mainstream. Trump saw an opening and took it. He didn’t just call out the Democrats—he set a trap, daring them to take a stand on Mamdani. Would they denounce extremism? The answer came swift and it was exactly what Trump wanted. By making Mamdani the cause célèbre of the Democratic Party Trump ensured that every vulnerable Democrat in 2026 will...

...The directive appears to be a push towards a larger denaturalization effort that fits with the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies. These could leave some of the millions of naturalized American citizens at risk of losing their status and being deported.... ....People who have committed violent crimes, are members or associates of gangs and drug cartels or have committed fraud should also be prioritized, the memo, issued by the head of the DOJ’s Civil Division, said. But for many officials and experts, the real concern, they say, is that it is designed to strike fear in the hearts of legal...