Free Republic

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has apologized for incorrectly stating on a White House application more than a decade ago that he was a Bronze Star recipient. Moore, a rising star in the Democratic Party, served in the Army Reserve between 1996 and 2014. He was deployed to Afghanistan in August 2005 through March 2006. Though he has won multiple awards for his service, including the National Defense Service Medal, he stated on a 2006 application for the White House Fellowship that his service won him the award of a Bronze Star. “For my work, the 82nd Airborne Division have...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Matthew 24:42–44Our Lord contrasts the call to stay awake with those who are asleep. Clearly, by stating “Stay awake!” so emphatically, Jesus is also telling us that...

Key Points * Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook sued to challenge her removal by President Donald Trump. * Trump said Monday that he was firing Cook because of allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. * Critics say that the move undermines the independence of the Fed, which sets key interest rates that affect mortgage rates and other debt rates. * The case was assigned to Judge Jia Cobb, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden. ========================================================================= A judge set a hearing for Friday morning on Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook’s request to block...

Robert Primus, who has served on the independent Surface Transportation Board, said he would explore his legal options if prevented from carrying out his duties. ============================================================== WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that it has fired a member of the Surface Transportation Board, a move that comes as the independent federal regulatory agency is considering the proposed merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroad companies. "Earlier this evening, I received an email from the White House purporting to terminate my position at the Surface Transportation Board," Robert Primus wrote in a post to LinkedIn on Wednesday. "This is...

Germany's largest arms manufacturer has inaugurated its latest munitions factory, to focus on the 155 mm artillery shells critical to supplying Ukraine. Rheinmetall's stock soared amid Europe's military spending spree. ================================================================ The Rheinmetall arms manufacturer opened a new factory at its existing site in Unterlüss in northern Germany on Wednesday, boasting that once it reaches capacity it could become Europe's biggest munitions production factility. CEO Armin Papperger said that the production of 155 mm caliber artillery shells would be progressively ramped up, to reach 350,000 units per year by 2027. These artillery shells are in particular demand and short supply...

It’s not every day that one gets to see private childhood home movies of someone famous. But I had such a privilege some 30 years ago, when I produced a feature on Dr. James Dobson, who died last week. He founded and led for decades the worldwide ministry of Focus on the Family, which became a virtual media empire, reaching millions of people worldwide. After he left Focus on the Family, he created “Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson.” I was privileged to be a guest on that program a couple of times. Gary Bauer, co-author with Dobson, continues programming...

In late 2023, Kent Liu finally decided to take a leap of faith: it was time to move his customised printing business from China to the United States. Liu felt he needed to make a change. For years, his company had made money by printing T-shirts, hats and other apparel in China for a range of clients, which were then shipped to the United States. But that model was increasingly under threat. In 2018, America raised tariffs on Chinese goods, and tensions between the two powers had continued to rise over the following five years. “If I don’t go,” Liu...

Russia has bombed a British Council building and the European headquarters in Kyiv in a 'deliberate' double strike during a huge onslaught on the Ukrainian capital that has left at least 17 dead. Video shows a missile slamming into the British building in a fireball explosion at around 5.40am before a second followed 20 seconds later leaving it 'severely damaged'.

The U.S. Air Force will provide full military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran fatally shot inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by then-Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd. The development comes after Judicial Watch wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urging him to “make a new determination granting military funeral honors” for Babbitt, which had been denied by the Biden administration. Senior counsel Robert Sticht asked Hegseth to consider two recent updates related to the case.

A kinder, gentler judicial system has emerged again in Washington, D.C., now that leftists are facing criminal charges over President Donald Trump’s move to curb crime in the city. The same system that put Paulette Harlow, a frail 77-year-old grandmother, in federal prison for blocking and praying in front of the door of a Washington abortion facility can’t find a thing wrong with a belligerent man whacking a law enforcement officer in the chest with a foot-long Subway sandwich and attempting to flee on foot. Sean Charles Dunn, the disgraced hoagie hurler, was charged this month with a felony for...

Once again, the narratives of the professional fake-news media collapse.For several days the media has been saying the Trump administration FBI targeted John Bolton, hence the FBI raid on his home and office. However, the New York Times now outlines how the investigation into John Bolton began during the Biden administration and picked up speed after they received access to his email information from an “adversarial country’s spy service.”Apparently, John Bolton used an unclassified email system to send information to his friends and allies. The emails were intercepted. Bolton was discussing information that appears to have been the outcome of...

New and interesting details have emerged regarding the transgender Minneapolis Catholic School shooter’s manifesto, including one that may surprise a few people. As The Gateway Pundits Jordan Conradson reported, a shooting was reported this morning at Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Annunciation Church and Catholic School. According to reports, students were attending an all-school mass on Wednesday morning when the gunfire started. Two children were killed, and 14 were injured, while three adults were also wounded. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that the shooter, who died of a self-inflicted wound, was a male in his early 20s. He has been identified as...

Democrats are staring down a gerrymandering Armageddon, and don’t have a lot of good answers. But if they think this current moment is frightening, just wait until the coming reapportionment apocalypse. Their current gerrymandering problem threatens their hopes of taking back control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms. Reapportionment could be much worse than that, potentially an existential threat that pushes them into a minority for another decade.How leading Democrats address these two significant challenges will determine whether they can pry back control of Congress, state legislatures and even the White House. But as Republican gerrymanders threaten...

I’ve seldom seen a better example of a rhetorical question—one to which the answer is so obvious no response is necessary—than this: No. No there isn’t, with perhaps one exception, thanks to a woman. One would have to go back to 1998 when Democrat Michael Dukakis, a man never accused of overt manliness, decided to strap on a helmet that made him look like a 2-year-old in an NFL helmet and mount an M1 Abrams tank for a brief spin for the cameras. That ludicrously incongruous image, which has never left the public consciousness, not only doomed his candidacy but...

The U.S. economy expanded faster than initially estimated in the spring, as Americans spent more freely and businesses stepped up investment, according to revised government data. Gross domestic product rose at a 3.3 percent annualized rate in the second quarter, up from the Commerce Department’s initial 3.0 percent estimate and above the 3.1 percent pace economists had forecast. The acceleration followed modest growth in the first quarter. The upward revision reflected households spending more on health care, pharmaceuticals and dining out, while companies boosted purchases of equipment and intellectual property. Business investment was driven by stronger outlays on software, research...

Markets react positively to Bolivia’s recent elections.It happened in Argentina, and now it is happening in Bolivia. Across Latin America, expelling the left from power brings optimism back to the markets. On August 17, Bolivians went to the polls and delivered a historic blow to Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), the left-wing party that has governed Bolivia during 18 out of the past 19 years. Just a day after the election, bond prices increased by 5%, and the country’s Country Risk Index score fell by 20%, according to JP Morgan. This confirmed the upward trajectory bonds had shown, since they had...

The Department of Homeland Security Headquarters Office of Policy has announced plans to award a potential $100 million contract to procure counter-unmanned aircraft systems capabilities. According to the forecast notice published Wednesday on the Acquisition Planning Forecast System, the DHS is seeking potential contractors to deliver c-UAS capabilities that will be utilized against evolving threats from unauthorized or malicious UAS. The capabilities will be used to detect, track, identify and mitigate UAS threats over a wide range of operational environments. The planned acquisition is intended to reinforce defense capabilities against threats to critical infrastructure, public safety and national security. The...

The U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter program, once nearly dead and starved of funds in favor of the Air Force’s F-47, has been potentially resurrected. A surprise move by the Senate Appropriations Committee restored over $1.4 billion to the program. Although it is far from being passed, it prompted top Navy officials to signal that they are now ready to select a prime contractor. This sudden reversal has breathed new life into the critical effort to replace the aging F/A-18 fleet.

The Air Force is granting full military funeral honors for Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was shot to death by police on Jan. 6, 2021, during the Capitol protest. Judicial Watch, which had petitioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in July to grant the honor, released a letter from Air Force Undersecretary Matthew Lohmeier dated Aug. 15 reversing the Biden administration's denial of a military funeral. "I understand that the family's initial request was denied by Air Force leadership in a letter dated February 9, 2021," Lohmeier wrote in the letter. "However, after reviewing the circumstances of Ashli's death,...

It appears to be the case that for a very large segment of black America, the ideas of conscientiousness and good citizenship are simply nonexistent. The bottom line is that a civilized society requires that citizens respect a certain level of behavior and decorum, and we’re seeing too many black Americans ignoring that basic responsibility. When people on the edge of the Overton Window of the culture wars (that is, people most normal Americans would find deeply offensive) start saying things that significant numbers of people agree with, that suggests a tipping point might be near.