Free Republic

As we reach the midpoint of 2025, it is evident that this year has been characterized by turbulence, uncertainty, and deepening despair for many in communist China.Six phenomena best capture the country’s current state: decline, fierce competition, political struggles, the “run” movement, random acts of violence, and the “lying flat” movement.They reveal the erosion of trust and a growing sense of disillusionment and unrest among the populace.DeclineFor many in China, 2025 is the most challenging year in nearly three decades, with numerous sectors of society experiencing a significant downturn. The real estate market is the most notable example.By the end...

CAMARILLO, Calif. - Several protesters and federal agents clashed during an immigration raid at a farm in Ventura ...Glass House Farms, a licensed cannabis facility... around 11 a.m. Another raid also occurred at another Glass House Farm in Carpinteria. Video from the scene in Camarillo showed multiple people confronting agents on the road near the field. Throughout the day, the protest continued to grow. Tear gas and smoke bombs were thrown into the crowd multiple times throughout the day. Federal personnel used gas to push back protesters who arrived on scene after getting word of a raid. Military helicopters were...

The Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBBA) will add trillions of dollars to the national debt over the next decade. Elon Musk is right that this is a turning point for American citizens. It is now clear that neither political party has the will to enact a fiscally responsible budget or solve the debt crisis. Musk threatens to form a third party if Congress kicks this can down the road. The budget process is broken, as special interests continue to carve out their bits of a spoils system. Congress is not even willing to discuss reforms in Social Security and Medicare....

Last week, after months of mounting pressure and speculation, the Department of Justice and FBI released what they thought would be the final word on the Epstein scandal. In a memo that many are calling a whitewash, the DOJ declared there’s no evidence of a client list, no blackmail network, and no coordinated effort to silence Epstein. The backlash was immediate and fierce. If the Trump administration thought this would put the controversy to rest, it was dead wrong. Instead of closing the book, the memo has only reignited public outrage and deepened suspicions that powerful people are still being...

The landmark Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti not only allowed states to protect children from predatory “transgender” medical interventions, but also stands as a massive rebuke of the medical “expert” class that kept insisting that mutilating children was good for them.As Justice Clarence Thomas said in a concurring opinion, “There are several problems with appealing and deferring to the authority of the expert class,” including that they absurdly claim that young children are capable of informed consent and that the alleged “evidence” for the “transition” interventions was “questionable” at best and the expert class “allowed ideology to influence...

BREAKING: CBP Commissioner reports that 10 illegal immigrant juvenile children, 8 of whom were unaccompanied, were found by federal agents during the operation at the cannabis farm in Camarillo today. Now being investigated for potential child labor violations. https://t.co/io5lPXHPXG— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 11, 2025...Here’s some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility - all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied. It’s now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom’s California. https://t.co/Z1XoRMtBSN— CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott (@CBPCommissioner) July 11, 2025

Hey folks, got some important news to share. You know Tulsi Gabbard, right? Well, she’s now the big boss for America’s top spies, and she’s making big changes. She started a special group in April to clean up the mess in the U.S. government. This group is called “DIG” for Director’s Initiatives Group, and it’s all about making sure our spy agencies are honest and open. DIG’s job is to do what President Trump wants with our spy stuff. They’ve got some of the smartest people working hard to expose how the Biden administration used secret agents against regular Americans....

July 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval for Moderna's (MRNA.O), opens new tab COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax, in children aged 6 months through 11 years who are at an increased risk of the disease, the company said on Thursday. The shot was previously available for pediatric populations under emergency use authorization. Moderna expects to make its updated vaccine available for eligible U.S. population for the 2025-26 respiratory virus season. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had in May said the U.S. has stopped recommending routine COVID-19 vaccinations for healthy children and healthy pregnant women....

The daughter of a New Jersey police chief claims he repeatedly raped her for more than a decade as part of a “ritualistic” cult allegedly involving their neighbors, according to a shocking lawsuit she filed. Courtney Tamagny’s allegations against Leonia Police Chief Scott Tamagny, his neighbor Kevin Slevin and others have starkly divided the small Bergen County borough. Both men say that the claims were thoroughly investigated as high as the federal government and determined to be unfounded. Slevin has even countersued Courtney for defamation. ... The 20-year-old claims her father and Slevin heinously abused her in their home, alongside...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna demands the appointment of a Special Counsel to expose the DOJ’s role in hiding Epstein files: “A Special Counsel is what the people are calling for. Give all the information.. The only way. I’ve seen the way the DOJ operates...” Jul 10, 2025

Seismologists are closely monitoring Mount Rainier after a swarm of earthquakes struck the Pacific Northwest’s tallest volcano this week. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that hundreds of small quakes have occurred since the swarm began, making it the largest such event at the mountain since 2009.Wes Thelen, a seismologist with the Cascades Volcano Observatory, told FOX 13 Seattle that the quakes began as a concentrated group of seismic events happening in quick succession..."We had an increase in activity in seismic activity up to about 26 events an hour, which is a pretty good event rate for a quiet volcano,"...

A federal judge has written a tentative decision that sides with the anti-American ACLU’s plaintiffs and will block Trump’s Department of Homeland Security agents from raiding Home Depots, car washes and other places in the Los Angeles area (7 counties in the Central District of California) unless they have reasonable suspicion that there is a violation of immigration laws. According to Fox News, US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, has written a tentative decision and it is still subject to change. The judge wrote her tentative ruling as leftists attack ICE agents during an immigration raid at...

The agency claimed the illegal migrant is a high-ranking member of the violent El Salvador gang MS-13, who is wanted for aggravated homicide of five victims, attempted homicide, deprivation of liberty and terrorist organization affiliation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Thursday arrested an alleged illegal migrant in Nebraska who has been accused of being a gang member on El Salvador's “Top 100 Most Wanted" list. The agency claimed the illegal migrant is a high-ranking member of the violent El Salvador gang MS-13, who is wanted for aggravated homicide of five victims, attempted homicide, deprivation of liberty and terrorist...

t was as predictable as the sun’s rising in the east. After Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bagged two dozen illegal-alien, Asian sex criminals in Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune sided with the criminals. All that sex abuse by the soon-to-be-deported Laotians and Hmong, the newspaper reported, was just a “cultural misunderstanding” because they often marry young back home. Not so, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported. Truth is, they are dangerous sex criminals.Newspaper StoryThe Star Tribune’s tale of woe begins predictably:Two dozen Hmong men who have lived in Minnesota for decades are being held in Minnesota and Iowa...

Thune and the Senate GOP’s slow-as-molasses confirmation of Trump’s executive appointments is a choice.A day after Donald Trump assumed the Oval Office for the second time, Senate Majority Leader John Thune went to the Senate floor to pledge that he would do whatever it takes to confirm the returning president’s executive appointments. “As I’ve repeatedly said, Senate Republicans are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees. Nights. Weekends. Recesses,” the South Dakota Republican wrote in an X post including his remarks. As it turns out, that was a load of horse manure. It is now...

The nation’s largest teachers union faced ridicule this week for misspelling “fascism” in a resolution opposing President Trump. The National Education Association (NEA), which represents more than 3 million teachers nationwide, approved the mangled proposal – aimed at defending “the survival of civilization itself” – on Sunday at the group’s annual convention. “NEA pledges to defend democracy against Trump’s embrace of fascism by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump’s program and actions,” read the adopted agenda item, obtained by conservative education expert Corey A. DeAngelis, who shared it on X. “The members and...

Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise helped to gain an Iranian woman’s release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he advocated for her.Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian, 64, has been living in the U.S. for 47 years. Her husband, Russell Milne, and daughter, Kaitlynn Milne, are both U.S. citizens.

For decades, girls have flocked to Camp Mystic to spend their summer days canoeing and fishing the Guadalupe River before retreating to bunk beds in rustic cabins just steps from the glimmering water. Many of those cabins were built in designated flood zones, records show, and some were so close to the river’s edge that they were considered part of the river’s “floodway” — a corridor of such extreme hazard that many states and counties ban or severely restrict construction there. Texas’ Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, adopted its own stringent floodway rules, which required that construction in...

Elon Musk just learned a hard political truth: that even the richest man in the world cannot buy influence in Washington, at least not when it matters most. Musk can buy recognition in D.C., and he has, complete with a steady stream of free media every time he spars with Donald Trump. But despite pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into election-related causes, endorsing candidates, and even threatening to primary Republican lawmakers who supported the “Big Beautiful Bill,” Musk was left empty-handed. Congress passed the bloated spending package anyway. Republican members shrugged off his influence, ignored his warnings, and fell...

As reported by Blackout News and then Climate Depot, European nations like Germany, Norway, and Belgium are “spearheading new regulations designed to tax capital gains before individuals emigrate.”For context, these three nations already have some of the highest taxation rates in the world. When you look at personal income tax rates, Germany’s top bracket is 47.5%, Norway’s is 39.6%, and Belgium’s is 53.5%. (Out of 36 European nations, Germany ranks 12th highest, Norway 19th highest and Belgium fifth highest.) And, hitting those top tax brackets isn’t just for the jetset elites. In Belgium, once your income reaches €48,320, you’re in...