Free Republic

...(setting aside the meaningless, for-show charges against a bunch of random Russians no one has ever heard of and no one will ever see anyway). I’ve followed this case closely since 2018 because, even among all the injustices carried out by Mueller’s thugs, this one stood out as particularly grotesque. I’ll write more about it later, but in short: Mueller’s team went through General Flynn’s old client list and targeted one of his former clients on a matter that had nothing to do with Trump or Russia, purely to pressure him into saying something damaging about Flynn and by extension,...

I've had a rough few days and have emerged from a cloud of medication to a barrage of intemperate emails from British readers demanding to know what I make of Jews being killed on the streets of Manchester, Jews being forbidden from attending footie matches in Birmingham, and Jews being arrested and interrogated for ten hours for perambulating the streets of London while wearing visible marks of their faith.Well, obviously, I'm shocked, shocked to find Jew-hate going on at Rick's Café Keffiyeh. But I'm not in the least bit shocked, shocked to find that yet again the public discourse in...

A U.S. marshal and a suspect were shot and wounded Tuesday morning, Oct. 21, during a traffic stop in South Los Angeles, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The shooting was reported about 8:50 a.m. in the 400 block of East 20th Street, according to Officer Luis Alanis, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE officers and U.S. marshals pulled over an undocumented resident who had “previously escaped from custody,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. The suspect had rammed his car into law enforcement vehicles and tried...

In October 2024, pro-Palestinian activists marched on Columbia University’s campus, on New York’s Upper West Side, chanting “Resistance is glorious! We will be victorious!” They held up signs that read “LONG LIVE THE AL-AQSA FLOOD,” commemorating Hamas’s murderous assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7. One of my professors, struggling to make herself heard over the cacophony, told us that students had been emailing her, telling her that they did not feel safe and would be absent. Another professor told us that we’d be welcome to leave for “personal reasons.” Such turmoil had become a routine part of campus life....

Donald Trump hosted Republican senators at the new 'Rose Garden Club' on Tuesday for a ritzy lunch as Diet Cokes flowed, laughter filled the air and sunshine glanced off the yellow-and-white striped umbrellas. But despite the blue-sky ambience, the President couldn't resist the urge to pour scorn on Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who has frequently clashed with Trump on spending, military action and tariffs. 'We have everybody but one person here. You'll never guess who that is,' Trump joked as the other senators chuckled. 'Let me give you a hint - he automatically votes No on everything. He thinks it's...

I Picked One of the Most “Extreme” Catholic Colleges—and It Changed EverythingAttending a faithful Catholic university will make you stand out, not because of your pedigree, but because of the person you will be when you come out.When I tell people I go to Christendom College, the reaction is almost always the same: a raised eyebrow, a polite smile, and then, “Wait, that super strict Catholic school?” Yep. That’s the one. To be honest, I kind of thought the same thing before I enrolled. I wasn’t raised Catholic. I’m a convert who came up through public schools and a typical...

Team Trump sent several leading U.S. universities a proposed one-sided deal. They’re balking at the offer, and it’s worth understanding why.Donald Trump and his administration have spent much of the year targeting American higher education in a multifaceted campaign, but the story took an unexpected turn earlier this month when the Republican White House unveiled a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”The document, sent to nine leading U.S. universities, offered the schools a deal of sorts. The institutions would become eligible for preferential treatment in the distribution of federal grants, but in exchange for this special status, the universities...

How a Colorado slumlord’s psyop turned into a brand-new ‘forever war’ on Venezuela Earlier this month, a middle-aged woman with shaggy, silvery hair and a pleasant smoker’s contralto flew from Denver to Washington to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. “My name is Cindy Romero,” she began. “I am a wife, a mother of five, a grandmother of three, a part-time worker and student, and a former resident of Aurora, Colorado. I am one of the many victims across the nation of the violent transnational terrorist organization Tren de Aragua.”Romero’s journey from anonymous apartment dweller to MAGA heroine began...

U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy has issued an injunction preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from redirecting $233 million in Homeland Security Grant Program funds, following a lawsuit by a coalition of Democratic-led states. The decision comes amid concerns that the reallocations have curtailed vital counterterrorism and emergency preparedness resources. Additional states are considering joining the litigation, citing potential impacts on national security funding, as the case progresses. McElroy said, “This sort of last-minute changing of the way the funding happens, and especially when it happens right in the wake...

Long before the dramatic September 30 ICE invasion, the beautiful South Shore of Chicago was afflicted by an epidemic of absentee slumlords and government apathy. A few weeks before the 2016 election, Chicago Tribune sportswriter Teddy Greenstein—now a DraftKings executive, naturally—broke some tantalizing news: Tiger Woods was this close to signing a deal to design a luxury lakefront golf course right next to the site President Barack Obama had chosen for his new presidential library. The $30 million project would convert two existing public golf courses into one ritzier and more challenging PGA-caliber one, which would woo away bankers...

Explanation: What caused these Martian rocks to be layered? The leading hypothesis is an ancient Martian lake that kept evaporating and refilling over 10 million years -- but has now remained dry and empty of water for billions of years. The featured image, taken last November by the robotic Curiosity rover, shows one-meter wide Whale Rock which is part of the Pahrump Hills outcrop at the base of Mount Sharp. Also evident in the image is cross-bedding -- rock with angled layers -- which were likely facilitated by waves of sand. Curiosity continues to find many layered rocks like this...

Gubernatorial candidate voted against Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act Abigail Spanberger, the Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate, really wants voters to know she has three daughters, and that should scare every Virginia mother and father straight to the polls. The girl mom crosses her heart that she’ll put families first, even though she refuses to pull her endorsement from attorney general candidate Jay Jones, who dreamed of putting bullets in a former Virginia House speaker and watching his children die. Maybe she isn’t talking about putting the speaker’s family first. SPANBERGER QUIET ON TWIN CONTROVERSIES IN FINAL STRETCH...

With Election Day two weeks away, all eyes are on Curtis Sliwa, as pressure grows on the Guardian Angels founder and Republican nominee to drop his mayoral bid. Cuomo, who has consistently trailed Mamdani in the polls, has attempted to make overtures to Republican voters and has dismissed Sliwa as a “spoiler” in the race. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Cuomo addressed Republican voters directly, saying the mayoral race is about “the future of New York and saving New York City.” With Election Day two weeks away, all eyes are on Curtis Sliwa, as pressure grows on the...

[Catholic Caucus] Papal Interview in Retrospect: Is the Leonine Honeymoon Drawing to a Close?Editor’s note: The following is a review of some of the aspects of Pope Leo’s first interview. For a more complete analysis of the interview in its totality, see this videoPope Leo XIV’s first extended interview, given to Elise Ann Allen of Crux Now and later included in a biographical volume, offers a telling portrait of his papal style. His words have drawn criticism across the Catholic world for their omissions and potential implications. In particular, traditionalists see cause for concern in the Pope’s opinions about the...

Donald Trump will no longer meet Vladimir Putin in Hungary after a phone call between US and Russian negotiators reportedly turned sour. The decision to call it off was made following discussions between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. It is understood that the conversation did not go well - with Lavrov telling Rubio that Russia would not accept freezing the current front line in Ukraine. 'An additional in-person meeting between the secretary and foreign minister is not necessary, and there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the...

When I arrived in Minneapolis, the frost had just lifted, and gray clouds hung low over the horizon. I had come to make a pilgrimage to George Floyd Square, where the revolution of 2020 began. It has been more than five years since Floyd lost his life and became a patron saint of the Left, and I wanted to see what had happened here since then. The square is situated in a run-down intersection that now features a statue of a clenched black fist in the central roundabout. On one corner stands a minimarket called Unity Foods—formerly Cup Foods—where George...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Construction workers tasked with building a new White House Ballroom reportedly discovered 1,357 stashes of cocaine hidden within the walls and ceilings of the East Wing. Work on the project was briefly postponed on Tuesday when a wheeled excavator demolishing a section of the East Wing suddenly tore through what turned out to be several kilos of heat-sealed polyethylene-wrapped cocaine, scattering it into the wind. Initially, workers cleared the area, fearing asbestos exposure, but after becoming strangely energetic and fearless, they returned to work. Secret Service agents later determined that the powdery substance was actually cocaine...

Former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) showrunner Elon Musk raged at Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday, accusing him of “trying to kill NASA” in an angry series of tweets that included a derogatory nickname. Musk and Duffy had previously sparred over Musk’s efforts at DOGE. “I think it might not have been intentional, might have been ham-handed [like] some of the requests that were made by [the Department of Government Efficiency], but my position was, we are not going to fire air traffic controllers,” Duffy told The New York Post‘s Miranda Devine earlier this year. “Safety-critical positions are...

This idiotic statement was made by CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour. "The hostages were a key bargaining chip of Hamas in the peace negotiations," she said. "So, I'm sure they were better fed and cared for than the average inhabitant of Gaza. None of them had to worry about whether aid would get through to them. On the other hand, the latest data released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health says Israel's military killed 67,173 killed Gazans, including 20,179 children." On October 7, 2023 Hamas took 251 hostages. This week they released the 20 who survived captivity. This amounts to a...

The House Judiciary Committee referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution on Tuesday over allegations that he “knowingly made false statements” to Congress about his role in the Russia collusion hoax.In the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi obtained by The Federalist, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, argued that “Brennan made numerous willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact contradicted by the record established by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the CIA.” (snip) The referral highlights numerous instances in which Brennan allegedly issued untrue remarks when testifying before...