Free Republic

There seems to be general agreement that Democrats need to radically transform their party image. The second election of Donald Trump and the subsequent failure of the party to gain favor in voters’ eyes even as many of Trump’s actions are notably unpopular suggests that Democrats have a “yuck” factor that just isn’t going away.Can the Democrats accomplish such a renewal of their party’s brand? On the plus side there are a number of Democratic-aligned organizations focusing on the party change imperative and promulgating useful analyses and suggestions. These include the new Searchlight Institute, the new Majority Democrats group of...

A former U.K. Metropolitan Police Detective Constable is speaking out, warning that he was told to drop his investigation into Islamic "grooming gangs" in London or he'd lose everything, including his children. The U.K. has tried very hard to cover up the scandal, with two survivors quitting an inquiry panel over claims Labour Party officials want the investigation to fail. Reports of sexual assaults, grooming, and forced prostitution go back years, with authorities turning a blind eye to the issue — fearing accusations of racism — INSANE 🚨 Jon Wedger the former Metropolitan Police Detective Constable in London, UK exposes...

When the White House included a gilt-framed image of an autopen in the new Presidential Walk of Fame installed outside the West Wing last month, it was more than just another epic troll by President Trump of his predecessor.The stark image on the wall among presidential portraits from George Washington to Donald Trump encapsulates Joe Biden’s failed presidency. It wasn’t just the opportunity cost of a commander in chief who was asleep at the wheel but the sum total of catastrophic judgments over four years of a man whose manifest flaws were only magnified by his cognitive decline.Even though everyone...

Buckingham Palace statement in full published at 15:05 15:05 Breaking We can now bring you the full statement from Buckingham Palace: His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him. Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts...

Explanation: "Beautiful Nebula discovered between the Balance [Libra] & the Serpent [Serpens] ..." begins the description of the 5th entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous catalog of nebulae and star clusters. Though it appeared to Messier to be fuzzy and round and without stars, Messier 5 (M5) is now known to be a globular star cluster, 100,000 stars or more, bound by gravity and packed into a region around 165 light-years in diameter. It lies some 25,000 light-years away. Roaming the halo of our galaxy, globular star clusters are ancient members of the Milky Way. M5 is one...

Think of swimming 2.4 miles in the ocean, afterwards riding a bike 112 miles and then running a 26.2-mile marathon, in a single day under 17-hours or be disqualified. I could not complete one of those events, much less all 3 in a single day. Then I read about this 80-year-old Grandmother who became the oldest woman to complete the Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. Remarkably, this 80-year-old woman didn't learn to swim until she was 59 years old. Here is a video of her finishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTNb1VVnPKM Here's another article on her training routine leading up to the Ironman. https://www.self.com/story/oldest-woman-ironman-world-championship

Britain is facing mounting pressure to ban mercury dental fillings, one of the few countries yet to prevent the practice, as new data reveals alarming contamination levels in the nation’s fish and shellfish. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that can harm the nervous, digestive and immune systems, as well as the lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes, even at low levels of exposure. Its organic form, methylmercury, is particularly dangerous to unborn babies and can move through the food chain building up in insects, fish and birds. Britain is lagging behind the rest of the world on phasing out mercury dental...

This is truly shocking stuff. Mexican authorities in August, with the use of DNI intelligence, captured an infamous human trafficker who would lure pregnant women to steal their babies and organs. She would then sell the stolen babies and organs on both sides of the border, which is how the United States got involved. The last example ... was providing intelligence to the Mexican law enforcement that led to the arrest of CJNG cartel affiliated baby trafficker called "La Diabla." Her whole moneymaking operation was centered around luring pregnant women, performing illegal c-sections, harvesting organs, and selling newborn babies. The...

Dictionary.com has named "67" (pronounced sik-sehh-vin) as the 2025 Word of the Year. Not joking. https://t.co/UXHZisA5Bw names ‘67’ as the 2025 Word of the Year. pic.twitter.com/VxpXjmeRFu— Pop Base (@PopBase) October 29, 2025A number has been named Word of the Year -- and it's not even allowed to be pronounced "sixty-seven." the alphabet finding out that a number won “word of the year” pic.twitter.com/ugfatdn70j https://t.co/KRKXt9cuok— wiLL (@willfulchaos) October 29, 2025You're supposed to do this when you say "67": I gotta send it over to Dictionary.com for an explanation for why they chose 67. But what does 67 mean? Perhaps the most...

Maryland State Senator Dalya Attar has been indicted after allegedly filming two of her rivals in bed together in an attempt to silence them. The bombshell indictment, filed on October 23, alleged that Attar, 35, planted tracking and recording devices to catch her two critics in the act. Attar then threatened to release the footage of the two 'in bed' unless they met her demands not to speak out against her publicly, prosecutors said. She is facing eight federal charges of extortion and conspiracy related to the alleged plot, which prosecutors said occurred in the run-up to the 2020 and...

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To help Social Security and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries cope with higher prices, a group of Democratic senators are proposing to increase benefits by $200 per month for six months. The bill — called the Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act — is backed by Democratic Senators including Mark Kelly of Arizona, Alex Padilla of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tina Smith of Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer of New York, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont. The leaders plan to introduce the proposal on...

A lesbian substitute teacher was fired on her first day over a TikTok she filmed where she appeared to leer at a young schoolgirl. Miata Borders, 24, was axed from her position as a sub teacher at Lake Cormorant High School in Mississippi, after sharing a TikToks of her work day on October 17. In the offending video Borders - sporting an enormous diamond crucifix necklace - filmed a group of children practicing for the school band while walking down a corridor. As the camera lingered on one girl wearing red Crocs while holding pom poms, Borders said: 'Yeah they...

Missing a boarding time for a cruise ship could end up fatal. An 80-year-old Australian woman was discovered dead on a remote island after she was left behind by the cruise ship she was traveling on. The woman was hiking on Lizard Island with a group of other passengers, but was separated from the group after she decided to take some time to rest. The Coral Adventurer cruise ship ended up leaving the woman on the island, but returned several hours later to find her after she was discovered not to be on board. On Sunday, she was discovered dead....

Imagine for a nanosecond the histrionic reaction, if a pro-Palestinian activist, decked out in pro-Hamas gear or wrapped in a Palestinian flag, were arrested for peacefully standing too close to a Jewish temple. Oh, the humanity! From congressional Democrats to the lapdogs of the left-wing media, the uproar would be deafening — not to mention the oodles of vile, antisemitic posts on social media. Yet, in no-longer-jolly old England, a Jewish lawyer was recently arrested for allegedly "antagonizing" a group of pro-Palestinian protesters. The lawyer's crime? He was wearing a Star of David necklace. That, gang, was an actual slap...

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a “food emergency” across the state Thursday as the federal government says SNAP benefits will run dry this weekend amid the federal shutdown. “We’re not going to be passive observers to this,” Hochul said from a food pantry in Harlem. The governor announced she would pump an additional $65 million in New York emergency food relief funds to keep benefits flowing after the freeze expected to begin Saturday. That’s on top of $30 million she announced earlier this week. Hochul said New York receives and distributes around $650 million per month for SNAP from the feds.

A Connecticut son bludgeoned his mother to death with a hammer, then ran out into the woods behind his ritzy family home, screaming out for his “Mama.” Police arrested 20-year-old Sebastian Van Stockum on Oct. 24 after he admitted to fatally attacking his mother, Laura Williams, 55, with his fists and a hammer inside their nearly $2 million home in New Canaan — about 10 miles outside of Stamford, according to the New Canaan Police Department. Officers said they responded to a report of a man shouting “Mama” from the woods at around 10:36 p.m. that evening when 911 received...

The University of Houston canceled a course this month on social injustice and oppression that was required for students in the Graduate College of Social Work. “As part of upcoming changes to the curriculum and degree plan, this course will not be offered at this time,” university officials wrote in a message to students, according to Inside Higher Ed. “We understand that this adjustment may raise questions, and we want to assure you that it will not affect any student’s ability to successfully progress through the MSW program or meet graduation requirements on time,” they wrote. The school did not...

“We would not eat.” That is how disabled U.S. Navy veteran Juan Saro described a life without the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP…About 1.2 million veterans are enrolled now, according to the National Council on Aging. More than 20,000 military families, 213,000 National Guard and Reserve members, and more than 1 million veterans, rely on such benefits, according to Veteran.com. Saro survived a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his time in the Navy. He later worked as a sixth-grade teacher. But COVID-related health problems made it impossible to stay in the classroom. The veteran now...

Gyeongju, South Korea – United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to call off a mutual escalation in their countries’ trade war, lowering the temperature in a heated confrontation that has threatened to upend the global economy. Trump and Xi sealed a one-year trade truce on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, where the two leaders met face-to-face for the first time since 2019. But while Trump and Xi’s agreement offered a reprieve to businesses unsettled by months of back-and-forth trade salvoes, it did little to roll...