Free Republic

After years of debate and incremental progress at the federal level, July 2025 marked a turning point in the national conversation on educational choice. President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law—a sweeping package that included the most ambitious federal education tax credit program to date. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act creates an individual, dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $1,700 per individual taxpayer for contributions to state-approved, federally recognized non-profits that distribute scholarships to eligible children. There is no cap on the total amount of donations and the program requires states to opt in....

A day after a leaks war played out in the media over the (mis)handling of the Epstein files by Attorney General Pan Bondi that started with reports that a disgruntled Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino had not come to work on Friday and featured rumors of threatened resignations and demands for her firing, FBI Director Kash Patel finally spoke out about the controversy. Patel’s comment, posted to his personal X account, will not put the matter to rest, but his statement on his tenure as FBI director is pretty definitive: “The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s...

A rising number of young German women are being converted to Islam through hardline Salafist outreach on social media, according to Berlin’s domestic political intelligence agency. The fundamentalist Salafism branch of Sunni Islam is making gains in Germany through increased proselytising on social media, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has said. According to figures shared with Die Welt, the number of Salafist followers in Germany in 2023 stood at 10,500. This rose to over 11,000 last year, nearly three times the number recorded in 2011. The political spy agency claimed that conversions of German women...

The Democratic Party’s credibility with voters has plummeted even further since the 2024 election, raising alarm bells as the party looks to rebuild ahead of the midterms and the next presidential election, according to a poll obtained by The Hill. The poll, conducted between May and June by Unite the Country, a Democratic super PAC, showed voters perceived the Democratic Party as “out of touch,” “woke” and “weak.” The party has seen its support erode with white men, Hispanic men and working-class voters across the board, with approval ratings sitting below 35 percent across those demographics. And enthusiasm within the...

A poll conducted by Quantus Insights in the days leading up to Elon Musk’s announcement of his new America Party suggests that the party would attract support from a notable share of voters across partisan identities, with a plurality indicating they would consider backing it or its candidates. The poll, which was sponsored by Trending Political News and first reported by the Miami Herald this month, surveyed 1,000 registered voters between June 30 and July 2. According to its methodology, the survey used a mixed-mode approach involving both SMS outreach and opt-in online panels. The reported margin of error is...

What’s going on with my “boys” and, in some cases, “gals?” They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and “selfish people” are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the...

Had that information been shared, federal and local law enforcement in Butler, Pa., could have provided heightened security for the president.. A new report on the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt on President Trump reveals that the Secret Service received classified intelligence regarding a threat to Trump's life 10 days before the rally, but failed to share the information with other key agencies. The damning report comes from the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) one year after a gunman's bullet grazed Trump's right ear during a campaign rally speech. The shooter, Thomas Crooks, killed attendee Cory Comperatore as he was protecting...

[Catholic Caucus] The Rise and Fall of the Cristeros | Part 2Part 1Previously published in an earlier edition of Catholic Family News. Full article on https://catholicfamilynews.locals.com/By Mark Fellows“The Torch of Faith flickers, the sign of redemption is hidden, and the cries of the impious suffocate the voices of good men and the clamor of religion. Save us Lord, for we are dying!” Mexican Bishop Ruiz y Flores, a published prayer prayed on the last day of religious services in Mexico, July, 1926.The 1857 Laws of Reform sought to separate the Church in Mexico from the State. The 1917 Constitution sought...

(from about the 19 minute mark): Milei's "chain saw" to government approach balanced the budget, brought inflation down to near zero, turned the economy around and reduced unemployment and poverty, all in one year.

Progressive politics may promise empowerment, but for many liberal women, the result appears to be rising misery and isolation. A growing body of data points to a clear trend: liberal women are statistically the most dissatisfied and mentally unwell demographic in the country, and experts say it may have more to do with worldview than circumstance. According to a 2024 survey from the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), just 12% of liberal women aged 18-40 report being “completely satisfied” with their lives. In contrast, 37% of conservative women in the same age group report full satisfaction, a difference that speaks...

What Does Pope’s New Bishop Appointment Tell Us About Future of LGBTQ+ Ministry?Since the beginning of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy, very little has been known about the pope’s approach to LGBTQ+ issues. However, Leo’s latest episcopal appointment may provide insight into the pontiff’s leanings on LGBTQ+ pastoral care. The appointment of Fr. Thomas Hennen as Bishop of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, is Leo’s first episcopal selection who has some sort of record on LGBTQ+ issues. Hennen, a priest of the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, is only 47, and will become the youngest bishop to lead a U.S. diocese.A Religion...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Saturday that the Department of Justice has dropped charges against Dr. Kirk Moore, a Utah plastic surgeon indicted in 2023 for allegedly issuing fake COVID-19 vaccination cards and destroying government-provided vaccines. “At my direction @TheJusticeDept has dismissed charges against Dr. Kirk Moore,” Bondi posted on X. “Dr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.” The move comes after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called for the charges to be dismissed earlier this week. “This...

Middle East specialist Andrew Fox joins The Winston Marshall Show for a haunting, firsthand account of the horrors unfolding in Gaza—and the global narratives that refuse to face the truth. Fox describes scenes of unspeakable brutality—massacres, ch*ld soldiers, and war crimes ignored by much of the international press. He explains how Hamas manipulates both civilians and the global media to fuel its propaganda war, while using human shields to mask its operations. They discuss the international community’s moral double standards, the weaponisation of victimhood, and the psychological toll on those who witness the atrocities firsthand. All this—media distortion, humanitarian tragedy,...

WASHINGTON, D. C. - U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli wants to mark the yearly anniversary of the day an assassin tried to shoot President Trump as a national “Faith and Defiance Day.” The Salem, Ohio, Republican announced Friday that he’s introduced a resolution to designate the yearly anniversary of the 2024 attempt on Trump’s life on July 13 as “Faith and Defiance Day” to honor Trump, and those who were killed and injured at the political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Rulli says he was inspired when Trump stood up after a bullet grazed his ear, with his fist raised, “telling us...

Germany is grappling with a severe crisis in sexual violence, as evidenced by the latest Police Crime Statistics (PKS), which reported 13,320 cases of rape and sexual assault in 2024. Over the past five years, these offenses have surged by approximately 50 percent. In response to this escalating threat, some experts are exploring unconventional “technical aids” to combat sexual violence. Sociologist Julia Wegen from Ravensburg-Weingarten University and Dr. Urs Schneider from the Fraunhofer Institute for Health Technology in Stuttgart have proposed a study to evaluate the effectiveness of a South African anti-rape device known as “Rape-aXe” as a potential deterrent.

Russia has sent a stark and chilling warning to Donald Trump, as the US Congress prepares to vote on a new batch of sanctions against Moscow. -snip- Vladimir Solovyov - a Kremlin apparatchik - warned Trump that Russia could become America's "most terrifying enemy" in a rant on his TV talkshow. "Maybe Trump simply can't grasp that Russia doesn't care about the national interests of other countries if they contradict those of our own state?" he fumed. Warming to his subject, the Putin stooge continued: "The time when someone like Yeltsin, who randomly emerged from the dust of history, managed...

As veteran public school teachers and longtime members of the National Education Association teachers’ union, we believe deeply in the transformative power of education — to inspire empathy, build bridges and create safer, more inclusive communities. That’s why we were appalled by the NEA’s recent decision to adopt a measure that would prohibit use of educational materials from the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL’s “No Place for Hate” program, a student-led program aimed at fostering schools free from hate and bias, has been implemented in more than 2,000 schools across the country. It has made a measurable, positive impact on school...

15-year-old illegal migrant arrested for Long Island murder: cops A 15-year-old illegal migrant has been arrested for stabbing a man to death on Long Island, officials said. Cops were called just before 12:30 a.m. Friday to a home on Roosevelt Place in Mineola, where they found a 32-year-old man who had been stabbed in the abdomen, the Nassau County Police Department said in a news release.

I wrote recently about the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has drawn the ire of colleagues in opinions for her rhetoric and extreme positions. Many have expressed alarm over her adherence to what has been described by a colleague as an “imperial judiciary” model of jurisprudence. Now, it appears that Jackson’s increasingly controversial opinions are serving a certain cathartic purpose for the far-left Biden appointee. On ABC News, Jackson stated, “I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues, and that’s what I try to...