Free Republic

Donald Trump has ordered the world's largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean in a major escalation in his war on narco-terrorists from Venezuela. USS Gerald R. Ford is joining the deployment of US Southern Command, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Friday. The 1,090-ft vessel — which can carry more than 75 warplanes — moves as part of a carrier strike group that includes a cruiser, three destroyers and nine aircraft squadrons. It will 'will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle' the cartels, Parnell said in a statement. The 100,000-ton warship joins...

In a state like Texas with stringent voting checks, over 2,700 illegal immigrants slipping through the cracks and onto the voter rolls highlights an issue that is much worse in states with lax laws. The dual revelations that an illegal alien school administrator from Iowa made it onto the voter rolls in Maryland and that over 2,700 noncitizens escaped strict voter ID checks to qualify to vote in Texas are creating new momentum for creating a nationwide citizenship check system for elections."Many folks that come into my office will tell me, and anyone who will listen, this is the biggest...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group currently stationed in Europe to the Caribbean region amid a massive buildup of US military forces in the region. The Gerald R. Ford strike group and its associated air wing are being sent to “dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations and counter narco-terrorism,” Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell said in a statement posted on X. The Ford group docked near the harbor of Split, Croatia on October 21. That would leave the ships more than 5,000 miles from the Caribbean, meaning it would take days for the group to be in...

White House Chair of the National Economic Council (NEC), Kevin Hassett, walked out to the press pool to discuss the latest excellent inflation figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics today {BLS REPORT HERE}. However, the insufferable press pool wanted to talk about other things. I’ll get to the BLS data below – with a gold nugget just for you, don’t share it. But first, NEC Director Hassett also let something slip in his responsive comments that most will miss.When asked about Trump’s decision to terminate all trade negotiations with Canada, Hasset noted the discussions were frustrating and “the Canadians...

We have created a demoralized right, perpetually apologizing for existing while the left advances unimpeded.Historically, the American left has operated under an unspoken rule: “no enemies to the left.” This principle, intended to preserve internal unity in the face of political threats, discourages public criticism of even the movement’s most radical elements so long as they advance the left’s overarching goals of acquiring and maintaining political power, winning elections, and discrediting conservatives and Christians in the cultural sphere.This strategy is visible in the Democratic Party’s response to any scandal that affects their side.When leaked text messages revealed that Virginia attorney...

This is what an insurrection looks like.At a meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Rep. Robert Garcia announced that the House Democrats on the Oversight Committee would be launching a ‘Master ICE tracker’. This follows the previous removal of ICE trackers by Apple and Facebook after the apps and sites tracking activity by immigration law enforcement personnel led to multiple violent confrontations with illegal alien activists, ugly acts of violence and at least one death so far. These confrontations are not just the work of random extremists, but of a leftist activist base supported by top Democrats and the...

Police have launched a manhunt after an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was mistakenly released from prison. Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for 12 months over the attack in Epping, Essex, last month. Prison sources said Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre ahead of a planned deportation. An investigation has been launched by the Prison Service and an officer has been removed from discharging duties while it takes place. Kebatu's arrest sparked protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, where he...

The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday. “The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.” The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress....

ACA was a costly illusion.The focus of the current government shutdown circus has increasingly narrowed to Democrat demands to undo proposed reductions in very large, supposedly temporary, Covid-era Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) subsidy boosts. A major part of their public push is the claim that they are trying to save citizens money, though what they are actually demanding is that we shift the burden to future generations via increased federal debt, backed by the threat of demonizing Republicans as heartless for taking away any benefits. They emphasize the need to maintain the “great deal” the ACA offered.The problem with their...

While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation contends it’s “not the outcome we hoped for,” residents in Mecosta County are celebrating its decision to nix $715 million in taxpayer-funded incentives for Gotion. MEDC officials on Thursday notified lawmakers that the company with strong ties to the Chinese Communist Party is in breach of its economic development contract, which was negotiated in secret by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration and select lawmakers just three years ago. “It’s about damn time,” Marjorie Steele, founder of the Economic Development Responsibility Alliance that opposed Gotion’s planned $2.4 billion EV battery plant, told Bridge Michigan....

President Donald Trump pulled the trigger on sanctions that European Union leaders and American neocons have long urged him to impose on Russia. An analyst for the Ron Paul Institute said this makes it “Trump’s war now.”The new round of sanctions are part of a one-two economic punch to Russia’s major source of revenue — energy. The EU also leveled sanctions. Making matters worse for the Russians are the British Storm Shadow cruise missile that hit a Russian rocket fuel plant earlier this week, indicating a recent upgrade in Ukrainian military capabilities and permissions for their use.The United States had...

The Winston Marshall sits down with Dr. Andrew Bostom, scholar of Islamic history and author of The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, for a sweeping conversation about the true history of jihad and the rise of Islamic antisemitism. Bostom explains how the origins of jihad trace back to Muhammad’s early campaigns in Medina, where religious mission turned to imperial conquest. Drawing from original Islamic sources — he reveals how violence, slavery, and subjugation became sacralised through theology, shaping centuries of conquest from Persia and India to the Middle East and North Africa. They explore the massacres...

President Trump is facing a growing political problem in America’s agricultural heartland, as he looks to import Argentinian beef to help bring down prices for U.S. grocery shoppers. The Trump administration is reportedly looking to quadruple low-tariff imports from Argentina, raising the quota to 80,000 metric tons per year. The news has enraged America’s beef farmers — and the Republican senators who represent them. “This isn’t the way to do it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Trump’s efforts to drive down prices. “It’s created a lot of uncertainty in that market. So I’m hoping that the White...

A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and partner Dora Maar that had remained out of view for more than eight decades sold Friday at auction for 32 million euros (about $37 million), including fees. Painted in July 1943, “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)” depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and photographer herself, had been Picasso’s partner and muse for about seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close. The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the...

As the political establishment runs about with their hair on fire screaming about the upcoming horrors of a Mamdani win in the New York City mayor’s race, I laugh with delight.Include political and social “elites” and I agree 100%.First, lets get real. NYC, unfortunately like a lot of places in the country, is basically one-party rule. Therefore, whoever wins the primary has an enormous probability of winning the general election. The real fight is in the primary.Everyone knows this. Everyone. I’m not the one who didn’t take the communist Mamdani as a serious candidate and basically handed him the primary...

The EV revolution is getting stripped for parts. California’s green dream is dying by a thousand copper cuts. You can’t plug in progress when the streets are unplugging the city. VIDEOS OF CRIMES AT LINK.................... BRIEFING ... Every now and then, a story drops that’s so dripping in irony it feels like satire. Los Angeles, the city that prides itself on being the crown jewel of “green innovation,” has officially short-circuited its own electric dream. The city’s extravagant vision of “zero emissions” is being shorted out by something painfully fitting: the homeless are ripping the copper wiring straight out of...

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a formal letter to top California officials Thursday, warning them against any attempts to arrest or impede federal law enforcement officers enforcing immigration laws. The letter, addressed to Gov. Gavin Newsom; state Attorney General Rob Bonta; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, stressed that federal agents and officers are carrying out lawful duties, and any interference by state or local officials is both "illegal and futile." The letter was sent after Pelosi, the former House Speaker, and Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., issued a statement Wednesday threatening to arrest...

The Trump administration excels at sowing uncertainty. But it is sending an unambiguous message to crypto entrepreneurs who may be operating on the fringes of the law, or outside of it: Don’t worry about a thing. ICYMI: President Donald Trump on Thursday issued yet another reprieve for a crypto mogul who happens to have greatly enriched the Trump family’s net worth. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2023 to charges related to anti-money-laundering violations. Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” was released in September 2024. After months...

A Republican measure that would pay essential government employees faltered in the Senate, and the G.O.P. blocked a pair of Democratic bills to pay a broader swath of workers.Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation to pay federal employees who have been working without compensation during the government shutdown, thwarting Republicans’ latest effort to weaken their hand in the federal spending fight. The defeat was part of a series of failed partisan votes on the 23rd day of the government shutdown that underscored the depth of the prolonged impasse, with neither Republicans nor Democrats showing any indication that they planned to...

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the streets and sidewalks for blocks around the Israeli Consulate in New York City on Sunday to protest issues including a potential end of an exemption for religious students from compulsory service in Israel’s military. The protest at the consulate, a block from the United Nations campus in Manhattan, illustrated the complex relationship between Israel and segments of the large population of very religious Jews in New York and its suburbs. The two influential, and often rival, grand rebbes of the Satmar community both called on adherents to participate in the demonstration. It comes after...