Free Republic

The federal offices are back open and hundreds of thousands of federal workers have returned to work after the longest shutdown in history. But nothing is back to normal — federal workers say morale and trust in leadership are at an all-time low, tensions are high between furloughed staff and those who worked through the shutdown, schedules are slipping and projects are being pushed back, and more people are accelerating their retirement plans or leaving federal service altogether. The recent shutdown, however, has just exacerbated the existing problems and added to what federal workers described as an already extremely trying...

hen Vladimir Putin declared this week that Russia was ‘ready’ to fight a war in Europe, the remark barely seems to have rippled the surface of Britain’s political consciousness. It should have sent a shockwave...Yet Britain continues to behave as though danger is tidily scheduled for years in the future, safely beyond the horizon of any present responsibility. It is a comforting delusion, but a very dangerous one. Britain cannot lead Europe if it cannot defend itselfWhat Putin understands – and what Britain refuses to face – is that Europe is vulnerable in ways that matter more than tanks or...

Desperate to replace money that she had allegedly stolen from three friends by lying to them and saying she had bought plane tickets for their daughters to travel with her to Florida, a 47-year-old woman went to the Promenade on the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates to find a vulnerable victim, which ended up being a 66-year-old retired nurse, prosecutors said during closing arguments of her trial Wednesday, Dec. 3. Cherie Lynnettee Townsend is charged with murder in the May 3, 2018 stabbing death of Susan Leeds of Rancho Palos Verdes, who was found bloodied and with 17 stab wounds,...

"The US delegation just met with Vladimir Putin and his staff in Moscow and although there is no peace agreement yet, we seem to be one step closer to some form of “compromise” as the Russian TASS news agency puts it."

Explanation: Where do comet tails come from? There are usually no obvious places on the nuclei of comets from which the jets that create comet tails emanate. One of the best images of emerging jets is shown in the featured picture, taken in 2015 by ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft that orbited Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Comet CG) from 2014 to 2016. The picture shows plumes of gas and dust escaping numerous places from Comet CG's nucleus as it neared the Sun and heated up. The comet has two prominent lobes, the larger one spanning about 4 kilometers, and a smaller 2.5-kilometer lobe...

Sen. Josh Hawley is pitching his colleagues — and President Donald Trump — on a new health care plan. The Missouri Republican’s proposal comes as his party is grappling separately over what its strategy on health care should be as the Senate stares down a floor vote next week onHawley believes his new bill, which would allow all tax payers to deduct up to $25,000 per person in medical expenses, would help offer Republicans an agenda to coalesce behind while boosting the GOP’s affordability message heading into an election year. The bill also allows out of pocket spending on premiums...

Daily Readings from the USCCB“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.” Matthew 7:24 & 26Jesus’ words remind us that each of us will inevitably face hardships: “The rain fell, the floods...

The big lies of modern feminism have taken a huge toll on women, causing them confusion and frustration. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert recently reported that 75 percent of his patients cannot function because they are so triggered by President Donald Trump’s existence. Alpert didn’t specify what percentage of his patients are women, but numerous reports show that leftist women today are especially afflicted with mental illness, misery, and loneliness. Alpert explained that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” matches the clinical symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).[video at link] They can’t sleep. They can’t enjoy life. And yet some psychotherapists actually advise them to isolate...

A University of Oklahoma student’s final grade won’t be affected after she controversially flunked a Bible-based essay on gender that was assigned by a trans instructor — triggering widespread backlash. Samantha Fulnecky, 20, filed a discrimination complaint with the school last week after she was given an F for arguing in her psychology class paper that “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.” The school has since revealed the failing grade will have no bearing on Fulnecky’s academic standing after the course’s professor, Mel Curth, was placed on leave and administrators launched a probe into the junior’s complaint. For the assignment,...

Hostility toward the US president is somewhat lower in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and PortugalPARIS, December 4. /TASS/. Almost one in two EU citizens surveyed perceive US President Donald Trump as "Europe’s enemy," according to the results of a poll of 9,500 residents in nine EU countries conducted in late November and published in the French magazine Le Grand Continent. "According to the latest figures, Trump is largely perceived as Europe’s enemy. On average, 48% of EU citizens surveyed see him this way, while 10% consider him a friend [of Europe] and 40% view him as ‘neither friend nor foe,’"...

I usually don’t throw up Vanities, but this one matters — because Congress absolutely reads Free Republic, and someone on the Hill needs to hear this plainly: Sen. Mark Warner’s “the uniformed military may help save us from this president” remark is not normal political rhetoric. It is not “oversight.” It is not “concern.” It is the exact kind of language members of Congress were censured — and even expelled — for in the years leading up to the Civil War. Warner is the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He knows the weight of his words. He knows civilian...

#2 Indiana (12-0) vs #1 Ohio State (12-0)

Overshadowed by the recent revelations in the Epstein files, the 62nd anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination came and went with little notice. Yet new documents relating to that still-unsolved murder—released only recently by the Trump administration—deserve far more scrutiny than they have received from corporate media. From the moment the latest batch of disclosures emerged this past March, the Democratic Party and their allies in corporate media assumed their familiar role as CIA stenographers, either overlooking—or outright refusing to look at—what more than 60,000 documents revealed. At an April 1 House hearing, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)—illustrating the Democratic...

DEDHAM, Mass. (WPRI) — A Nativity display at a church in Dedham, Massachusetts, is sparking a debate.The display outside Saint Susanna Parish now features a sign that reads “ICE was here” instead of the figures of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.Below it, another message claims “the holy family is safe in our church” and instructs people to call a number if they see immigration agents.

State Senator Lea Webb, who represents Tompkins, Cortland, and much of Broome County, is facing foreclosure on her Binghamton-area home, according to recent court documents. The Ithaca Voice reports attorneys for PHH Mortgage Corporation, a New Jersey-based lender, filed a civil suit against Webb in federal district court on October 22 over missed mortgage payments. Court filings indicate that as of June 2025, Webb was in default for $7,760, roughly equivalent to three months of payments. Webb purchased the four-bedroom home in Johnson City last December for $380,000, according to county records. The property is listed on Broome County tax...

[Germany] The founding congress of the new AfD youth division, Generation Deutschland, drew thousands of Antifa rioters and other leftist protesters to Gießen. Leftists flood the streets of Gießen Saturday in yet another anti-AfD protest.Saturday saw one of the larger police actions in the history of the Federal Republic, as 5,000 officers deployed against a leftist mob numbering 25,000 or more. The Antifa network Aktionsbündnis Widersetzen (“Action Alliance Resist”), Social Democrat-aligned labour unions like DGB and Verdi and an array of “civil society organisations” took to the streets of Gießen to protest the founding congress of the new Alternative für...

Complaints about the Commission for Public Higher Education’s (CPHE) proposed solutions to accreditation problems are unwarranted. This October, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article titled “Will the Commission for Public Higher Education Be a ‘Serious’ Accreditor?,” voicing concerns about higher education’s most recent innovation. Touted most famously by Ron DeSantis, the CPHE, a brainchild of six Southern university systems (including the UNC System), aims to “advance the quality and improvement of higher education by accrediting … state public universities that are incorporated, chartered, licensed, or authorized in the United States.” The first cohort of CPHE applicants was announced...

Jailed teacher Enoch Burke will not be released for Christmas like he has been in the past, a High Court judge said on Wednesday. Mr Justice Brian Cregan also said he did not intend to release him for Easter and he did not understand why he was released in the past during his previous four jailings for contempt. Others in prison for contempt were not treated like this and let out even though they fail to purge their contempt, he said. The judge gave Mr Burke a review date of March 3rd, but in the meantime he has liberty to...

When the publishers of this children’s book are aghast that it’s being used to push hilarious reactions to liberal insanity, you know you’ve hit a home run. Enter ‘Franklin the Turtle,’ a Canadian children’s book series that has become a social media sensation, as good patriots have turned it into many memes mocking liberal policies. The use of Photoshop and AI is elite. I’m sorry—they’re all hilarious. I can’t post all of them because, well, I would get in trouble, but you could imagine. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s post showing the turtle blowing up narco-terrorists was total cinema. It...

For two decades, Muhammad Abdulrahman, 58, lived with his wife and his beehives on a remote hillside in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But in May, Israeli settlers set up camp about 200 yards away and took control of the road leading to Mr. Abdulrahman’s home, blocking him from returning, he said. Israeli soldiers then evicted him and his wife, Suha Abdulrahman, the couple said. The Israeli military said that Mr. Abdulrahman left voluntarily, but he said that he has still been unable to return home. Last month, a video shared by an Israeli lawmaker on social media showed his house...