Free Republic

The thing about off-year elections is that there are so few of them that it’s tempting to over-interpret their significance. That’s particularly true when the key races are viewed as tests for a Democratic Party that is terrified about its past and future and unsure of its identity. Right now the four off-year contests that are getting the most national attention are the mayoral race in New York City, gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, and the Prop 50 retaliatory gerrymandering ballot initiative in California. Prop 50 seems to be gliding towards an easy win. Democratic advantages in New...

“Nazi bootlickers” are running rampant in Milford, Conn. — and apparently I’m one of them.That is, according to a local Democratic committee member who hurled invective at me and other Republican aldermen at a public meeting this month.The accusation reflected a growing national sickness: The harsh political rhetoric that led to Charlie Kirk’s assassination is eating away at the roots of American politics — our local town councils. An anti-Trump demonstrator with Rise and Resist holds a sign that reads ‘NO KINGS NO FASCIST NO TRUMP’ outside of Trump Tower on Fifth Ave. ZUMAPRESS.comThe ugliness exploded after our town’s elected...

Seven Democrat states have pledged tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to prop up Planned Parenthood amid federal defunding under Congress and President Donald Trump. The move is drawing sharp condemnation from pro-life advocates who say the states are propping up the nation’s biggest abortion company. The taxpayer-funding commitments from New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts and Hawaii come in response to a one-year moratorium on Medicaid reimbursements for nonprofits that kill babies in abortions, enacted as part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” signed in July. The law bars such organizations from federal funding if they received...

Vatican honors Hinduism, Islam with dance celebration on anniversary of Nostra AetateDuring the dances at the Vatican, a woman alternately held up signs with an 'Om' Hindu symbol, a picture of a crucifix, and an Islamic crescent and moon.The Vatican celebrated on Tuesday the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, by paying homage through dance to Hinduism and Islam alongside Christianity.A recording of the commemoration, held in the Paul VI Hall, shows women dressed in traditional-style garb dancing to Eastern and Middle Eastern music. During the dances, a woman alternately...

The Democratic Party has spent most of the past decade deciding to lose. Or so argues a new report from Welcome PAC, an organization that backs center-left candidates, so as to build “a big-tent Democratic Party.”It is no secret that the Democrats are in a sorry state. They’ve lost to an exceptionally unpopular Republican presidential nominee twice in the last nine years. They have long odds of regaining control of the Senate next year and aren’t even certain to retake the House of Representatives. They’re historically unpopular, having lost ground with much of the party’s traditional base — including voters...

Biden preemptively protected a variety of people on Trump’s enemies list with pardons. Republicans want to strip them of those protections. As Republicans renew their offensive against Joe Biden, it’s not unreasonable to wonder about the underlying point of their partisan crusade. The former Democratic president won’t seek elected office again; he can’t be impeached; and even if GOP officials were eventually to concoct something damaging, he can’t be criminally charged. So why bother investing so much time, energy and resources into smearing him? What does the Republican Party hope to gain?The answer is increasingly obvious.During a recent appearance on...

Russian soldiers have advanced further into the city of Pokrovsk, threatening not only to take the city, but to complete a larger encirclement of the surrounding area, as independent analysts and commanders report a serious deterioration of the Ukrainian position in the area

Sudan's military government has ordered two senior officials at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) to leave the country amid widespread famine sparked by a gruelling civil war that erupted in April 2023. The WFP said directors of its Sudan operation were declared "personae non grata" and told to go within 72 hours, without explanation. The decision comes days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), captured the key city of el-Fasher in Darfur from the military after an 18-month siege, which included a food blockade. The WFP said the expulsions came a "pivotal time" as humanitarian needs in Sudan...

Russia has successfully tested a nuclear-capable, nuclear-powered underwater drone, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, defying US President Donald Trump's warnings with Moscow's second test of a new nuclear weapons system in just a few days. Putin on Sunday oversaw a test of another advanced nuclear-capable weapon -- the Burevestnik cruise missile, which he said had an "unlimited range". Trump called that exercise not "appropriate". "Yesterday, another test was conducted for another prospective system -- the unmanned underwater device 'Poseidon,' also equipped with a nuclear power unit," Putin said in televised remarks while visiting a military hospital treating Russian soldiers wounded...

In one of America’s most popular novels, seven-year-old Scout has been reading “ever since she was born.” She and her father read the newspapers together every evening. Late in the summer, she realized she would be starting school in a week. “I never looked forward more to anything in my life. Hours of wintertime had found me in the treehouse, looking over at the schoolyard, spying on the children there. ... I longed to join them.” But everything changed by lunchtime! Scout’s older brother Jem asked how she was getting along on her first day of school. “I told him....

OAKLAND, Calif. - FBI agents were seen swarming an Oakland apartment early Wednesday morning, and hours later, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced the federal grand jury indictment of nine men on charges of racketeering conspiracy in connection with two murders, three attempted murders, narcotics and firearms distribution, and other related crimes allegedly committed for two Oakland-based Sureño street gangs.

https://babylonbee.com/news/aoc-tells-mom-giving-birth-to-get-a-real-job BRONX, NY — According to witnesses at the scene, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst into a birthing suite at local Montefiore Hospital to tell off a woman in labor that she should get a real job. "All you do is lay around," Ocasio-Cortez reportedly said, admonishing a woman actively in labor. "I would like to challenge you to get a real job and contribute to society." Doctors described the scene as odd. "This angry Latina came in and started making all sorts of demands of the patient. I'm not even sure they knew each other," Dr. Karen Ross said. "It...

Execution of Lavrentiy Beria - Chief of Stalin's Secret Police & Most Hated Man in the Country . Lavrentiy Beria, a son of deeply religious Orthodox parents, was born on the 29th of March 1899 in the Georgian village of Merkheuli then part of the Russian Empire. Young Beria attended a technical school and distinguished himself in mathematics and the sciences. In March 1917 while a student in the Azerbaijan Baku technical university, Beria joined the Bolsheviks. In the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led to the collapse of the Russian Empire and allowed territories formerly under...

A so-called 'male Karen' who went on a rampage in a California hair salon - hurling shampoo bottles and screaming profanities - has pleaded guilty to assault and could spend the next six years behind bars. August Marriott, 28, was captured on cell phone footage raging inside of Great Clips salon in Santee earlier this year before he was arrested for numerous charges, including assault. Marriott will be sentenced on November 18 after he pleaded guilty to assault and admitted to a prior strike conviction as part of his plea, according to the San Diego district attorney's office. Marriott had...

The Senate passed a resolution aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, with four Republicans joining Democrats to rebuke the administration’s trade policies a day after they voted to terminate tariffs on Brazil. Sens. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and former Republican Leader Mitch McConnell crossed the aisle to side with Democrats in the 50 to 46 vote. They all previously voted to block the Canada tariffs in April.

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Federal Reserve officials voted for another quarter-point rate cut on Wednesday, lowering their benchmark lending rate to a range between 3.75% and 4%, the lowest in three years. The decision drew two dissents; one from Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who backed a larger, half-point cut; and another from Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid, who preferred to hold borrowing costs steady. It is the first time since 2019 that there were dueling dissents — both calling for easier and tighter policy — underscoring the heated debate among officials over how President Donald Trump’s sweeping policies on trade, immigration and spending...

An appeals court has temporarily paused a federal judge's order requiring U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino to appear in court daily and give updates on immigration enforcement activity in Chicago under the Trump administration's "Operation Midway Blitz." The Department of Justice on Wednesday appealed U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis' order, which mandated Bovino check in with her at 6 p.m. daily to ensure compliance with a temporary restraining order that restricted federal agents' use of force in crowd-control tactics.

emember that "wave of intense support" for Kamala Harris in the summer of 2024, stemming from her social media campaign using terms like "brat" and "coconut?" Me neither. But Audie Cornish does! On Wednesday's edition of CNN This Morning that she hosts, Cornish brought on Katie Drummond of the leftist magazine Wired to explain why Zohran Mamdani's social media campaign has been so successful, while Kamala's flopped: When I look at Kamala Harris, and we think about Brat/Coconut Summer, there was this sense of like a wave of intense support, right? And attention. Why do you think that that didn't...

First Strike - Overview of 1980s Nuclear Retaliatory Response Scenario (Full Version) . Association of Air Force Missileers (AAFM. 1,132 Comments. 327,371 views Jan 5, 2022 Show less Video includes Minuteman ICBM operations, Airborne Launch Control System (Looking Glass) and other Strategic Air Command and U.S. Navy resources that would have been brought to the fight if America was attacked. This is the full version of the video .. Presented from the archives of the Association of Air Force Missileers (AAFM) www.afmissileers.org tonight you will be the victim of a nuclear attack by the russians. we might pay particular notes...