Free Republic

Lots of misinformation is being spread about President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize law enforcement in Washington, D.C. Much of it is the usual Trump Derangement Syndrome: “fascist” tendencies toward “authoritarianism” at the expense of “black and brown” people because of DJT’s “racism” and desire to bury the Epstein scandal. There’s no “emergency” justifying the takeover. The “solution” is to do what Democrats failed to do for decades: Make DC the 51st state so it need not undergo such “humiliation.” Where to start? My point of departure is political. Washington is the “federal city.” The Constitution is explicit. Congress has...

At South Carolina GOP rally, Graham defends Israel against genocide claims, praises Trump’s steadfast support since Oct. 7 attack and warns US abandonment of ally would bring moral and spiritual consequences Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham delivered an emphatic defense of Israel on Wednesday night during a South Carolina Republican Party rally, telling the party’s evangelical supporters that the U.S. must continue to stand firmly with its Middle East ally. Speaking late in the evening, Graham described Israel as “in a fight for their lives,” surrounded by enemies who “would kill them all if they could.” He sharply criticized accusations of...

Scopes: Same Debate, Different World This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial, in which an ACLU-led attempt to overturn a Tennessee law banning the teaching of evolution in schools turned into a nationally broadcasted showdown between creationism and Darwinism. Understandably, the Scopes trial is often viewed through the lens of current debates surrounding evolution, creationism, and intelligent design. But the “past is a foreign country,” and it’s often a mistake to try to fit history into the mold of the present. Historian Edward B. Davis’s new critical anthology Protestant Modernist Pamphlets: Science and Religion in...

Economic turmoil as elections loom.Bolivia’s economy is on the brink of collapse. The country is experiencing its highest inflation in 38 years: in June alone, prices rose by 5.2%, which is not only three times higher than Argentina’s inflation, but also equivalent to what Peru records in two or three years. Bolivia is also facing a shortage of US dollars and a wave of protests and road blockades, which exacerbates another problem: the lack of goods. From medicines and chicken to cooking oil and gasoline, Bolivians struggle to find basic products, and when they do, they pay exorbitant prices.This is...

Peter Szijjarto said that EU leaders would like Hungary to have "a government that serves their interests"BUDAPEST, August 14. /TASS/. European Union leaders, along with Ukraine, seeking a change of government in Hungary, are openly supporting the political opposition in the country, hoping for its victory in the 2026 parliamentary election, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, said, commenting on a report from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) saying that Brussels and Kiev want Prime Minister Viktor Orban ousted from his position. EU leaders would like Hungary to have "a government that serves their interests, refrain...

The Boomer MirageI saw this chart making the rounds on Twitter this week, and it stopped me cold. While the specific figures combine data from multiple sources, the trend is undeniable: in 1950, over half of 30-year-olds were married homeowners. By 2025, some analysts project that number as low as 13%.That’s not a societal transformation. It’s not an economic fluke. It’s the visible outcome of an invisible strategy—one that extracted everything it could from a three-generation arc and left only illusions in its place.They’ll tell you people just choose differently now—that marriage rates fell because of changing values. But people...

SpaceX warned on Wednesday that Virginia is planning to spend over ten times what was required for its proposed high-speed internet access program by not sharing a large chunk of the incentives for Starlink. In a letter addressed to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, SpaceX said that the final proposal for the program was a “massive waste of federal taxpayer money,” before noting that SpaceX could have served virtually every eligible household at $60 million, compared with the $613 million in expenditure proposed by the Commonwealth. “Simply put, Virginia has put its heavy thumb on the scale...

First lady Melania Trump is going after Hunter Biden for what she says are “false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements,” the former first son made linking her to disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. On Aug. 6, Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, wrote to Biden demanding he retract the comments made in an interview with Andrew Callaghan. She will “pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to her to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that you have caused her to suffer," Brito wrote. Biden’s comments, falsely claiming Epstein introduced Melania to Trump, were widely circulated on...

The United States has ordered the deployment of U.S. air and naval forces to the Southern Caribbean Sea to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the decision told Reuters on Thursday. The sources had few details of the operation, but President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations. The Pentagon had been directed to prepare options. Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration, part of a wider effort to limit migration and...

When your daily life in a city is marked by a series of fearsome conversations, signs of squalor, and dangerous encounters, no rational person can call it safe.The Trump administration is confronting another major problem, so naturally, Democrats and the media are busy at work claiming the problem doesn’t actually exist or otherwise can’t be solved by any obvious solution. This time, it’s crime and disorder in Washington, D.C., something anyone who has lived there for 24 hours is appalled by.I lived there for 14 years. The decay and lawlessness are a primary reason I left.It was never worse during...

At a time when Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has emerged as the most popular political force in the country, overtaking even the traditional parties that have governed for decades, Germany’s state apparatus—together with allied cultural and media organisations—is intensifying efforts to isolate and discredit it. The latest example comes from Berlin, where the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, a taxpayer-funded cultural institution, will in September host the ‘heimaten Festival für die plurale Demokratie’ (‘Festival for Plural Democracy’) an event with a distinctly ideological tone aimed at countering the populist right. Organised under the authority of Minister for Culture Wolfram Weimer...

California’s signature climate program, cap-and-trade, is set to expire in 2030. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to extend the program to 2045, but critics say it needs reforms. Significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions and billions of dollars in revenue are at stake. As California pushes toward its ambitious goals for addressing climate change, the fate of its signature program is hanging in the balance. For months, lawmakers, industry groups and environmental advocates have been mired in negotiations over whether and how to extend the cap-and-trade program, which limits planet-warming emissions, beyond its 2030 expiration date. The cap-and-trade program was nation-leading...

This is an interesting video that touches on the talks between Trump and Putin, and the situation in Ukraine. It includes an interview with a Russian writer/journalist -- who I don't know -- and his interesting take on the war. I found it to be a very level-headed interview and discussion, and one that also touches on the history of war in Ukraine.

Once a vague proposal for a territorial swap gained clarity, a worried President Volodymyr Zelensky worked to rally allies before Friday’s Trump-Putin summit.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was returning from the front line last week when he joined a pivotal call with President Trump.Hours earlier, Mr. Zelensky had visited soldiers defending Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region against Russian ground assaults. Now, stopping in the small city of Romny, he listened on a secure line with other European leaders as Mr. Trump outlined Russia’s proposal to end the war.Moscow, Mr. Trump told them, was ready to halt hostilities under a deal involving...

Scripps News speaks with vaccine experts who say HHS funding cuts targeting mRNA vaccines could hinder other vaccine research and development.Dr. Elias Sayour is working on groundbreaking research toward a universal cancer vaccine, and he’s concerned that a recent decision from the Department of Health and Human Services could impede his team's work and the research of others hoping to develop new vaccines for diseases.Sayour, a pediatric oncologist and professor at the University of Florida,is leading a team that’s using mRNA technology to help create a vaccine that fights cancer.On Thursday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his department...

Hunter Biden dismissed First Lady Melania Trump’s demand for an apology for his statements linking the former super model to Jeffrey Epstein. Hunter’s response, “F*** that! That’s not going to happen.” What a piece of trash.

NEW YORK (AP) — As National Guard troops deploy across her city as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to clamp down on crime, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is responding with relative restraint.She’s called Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department and his decision to activate 800 members of the guard “ unsettling and unprecedented ” and gone as far as to cast his efforts as part of an “authoritarian push.”But Bowser has so far avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented incursion into her city.“While this action today...

August 14 - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will seek long-term federal control of Washington's police force to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital. But Trump can expect a flurry of lawsuits if he tries to do so without Congress's approval. Here is why. WHO CONTROLS DC LAW ENFORCEMENT?The Democratic mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has authority over the city's Metropolitan Police Department. But a federal law from 1973 known as the Home Rule Act allows the president to take control of the MPD for 30 days during an emergency. Trump invoked this provision of...

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who led the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, told Joe Rogan that the Russian government has agreed to release long-secret KGB intelligence files on Lee Harvey Oswald, documents she claims the CIA destroyed after receiving them at President John F. Kennedy’s funeral. During her appearance, Luna detailed how she and two fellow members of Congress recently met with the Russian ambassador, the first such meeting on this subject since 1990, as part of her ongoing push to uncover the truth about JFK’s assassination. According to Luna, the KGB conducted its own independent...

Wild, newly released dash cam footage shows the Democrat’s choice to run for governor in South Carolina getting arrested recently in just his underwear — with him swearing and using the n-word while referring to himself as both God and Superman. Married father-of-four William “Mullins” McLeod, 53, is facing calls from his own party to step down from the gubernatorial race he only formally entered Monday after video emerged a day later of his bizarre arrest just months earlier in May, according to WCBD. The prominent attorney was stopped in downtown Charleston while “yelling at the top of his lungs”...