Free Republic

I am a visual thinker, and I love maps and charts, so I just put this one together. In my opinion, we are moving from peacetime economic trade war conditions to a quazi-kinetic war for the control of the critical natural resources that are needed by the major powers in our emerging multipolar world.So, just what in the Sam Hill is a quazi-war?Well, it turns out that we already fought one. Read about it at the link.Today, the unipolar period which followed the end of the cold war is coming to an end. It’s being replaced by a tri-polar world...

George Clooney has long been a critic of Donald Trump, but the outspoken liberal has now opened up about their former friendship and how it ended over politics, RadarOnline.com can reveal. Clooney, 64 – who famously penned an op-ed urging ex-President Joe Biden to suspend his reelection campaign in hopes of Vice President Kamala Harris having better odds at defeating Trump, 79, in the 2024 election – noted he once knew the Republican president "very well" and considered him to be a "big goofball." In a recent interview discussing his life and latest film, Jay Kelly, Clooney reflected on his...

Coming off back-to-back blockbusters — “Top Gun: Maverick” and “F1: The Movie” — director Joseph Kosinski can likely make just about any movie he wants. Call it carte blanche. In fact, that’s exactly what he’s doing, as he’s set to helm two projects: a “Miami Vice” reboot at Universal Pictures, written by Dan Gilroy, and, more intriguingly, an untitled UFO film centered on government whistleblowers. Speaking to Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Kosinski discussed his hopes of securing Michael Mann’s involvement in the “Miami Vice” reboot, given that Mann was behind both the original television series and the 2006 feature film starring...

On this day, exactly two and a half centuries ago, an Irish immigrant who had become one of Gen. George Washington’s trusted aides in the Revolutionary Army was the first person to use the name “United States of America.” Stephen Moylan played a key role in the American Revolution, but like his fellow Irish Catholic immigrant and George Washington’s favorite aide, John Fitzgerald, Moylan had been almost lost to history in the modern era. That is, he was overlooked until, at the close of the 20th century, a letter of his from Jan. 2, 1776, came to light that proved...

To some people, earbuds are life. Girl was probably just trying to enjoy some Modern English on the job when one of her earbuds fell out and dropped right into the deep fryer. And then, reportedly, she reached in to try to get it out. Believe it or not, the woman suffered burns to her hand and was treated by an EMS crew and promptly transported to the hospital. I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go ahead and just assume they cleaned out that fryer.

"Festivus" was a holiday created by the writers of Seinfeld for a 1997 Christmas episode, which they jokingly made into an alternative to Christmas for those who hated the commercialization of the holidays. One of the "traditions" created for the fake holiday was the "Airing of Grievances." In 2015, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used that "tradition" as a springboard to write a report on government waste. Prior to 2015, Paul would post a few comments on Twitter highlighting egregious examples of government waste. But on December 23 of that year, he released a 38-page report. “Our investigations into federal spending...

I suspect that Somalis around the country – especially, but not exclusively, in Minneapolis – wish about now that they had spent more time studying the wit and wisdom of Gertrude Stein. Stein, had she lived in our own day, might well have become commissioner of New York City’s Fire Department. She had the one qualification that Zohran Mamdani seems to deem essential to the post. Sadly, that was not to be. But there is no denying that, on certain matters, Stein was a font of practical wisdom that remains as pertinent today as it was when she was pontificating...

Over 500 women have sued Virginia’s Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, alleging that the health system had "enabled" former physician Javaid Perwaiz, who is currently in prison, to perform unnecessary surgeries on them. Perwaiz was convicted of Medicaid fraud and is serving a 59-year sentence for performing unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including hysterectomies, on women without their consent. In total, 510 plaintiffs are each seeking $10 million. The 204-page complaint alleges that despite "repeated reports and clear evidence" of prior misconduct by Perwaiz, who is from Pakistan and came to the US in the 1980s, at his own OBGYN practice, the...

Harvard is not cheap. Attending as an undergraduate costs $86,926 per year. On top of that, Harvard vacuums up staggering sums of taxpayer money, despite receiving $billions per year in donations and sitting on an endowment of $57 billion. But at least the students are learning something besides LGBTism, Critical Race Theory, and how to hate America. The New York Post reported last spring: The school’s math department is providing a new scaled-back math class for freshmen who are apparently arriving on campus lacking “foundational skills” in high school math basics like geometry and algebra. Why is it that students...

A man is dead after allegedly pointing a rifle at an off-duty ICE officer in Northridge, California, Wednesday around 10:45 p.m. ABC 7 reported the off-duty officer was inside his apartment and heard what he thought to be gunshots outside. The officer grabbed his gun and went outside to investigate and came upon a suspect who was allegedly holding a long gun. The officer identified himself as law enforcement, at which point the suspect allegedly pointed the rifle at him. An exchange of gunfire occurred, after which the officer went back inside to retrieve body armor and call backup. LAPD...

A people that doubts its right to exist will never resist being replaced. Survival begins where guilt ends. True --Elon Musk

With all of our modern technology, our modern lifestyle, our comfortable homes, and so on, it's easy for some people to forget that we're part of the natural world, too. Part of that means that we, like any animal, are subject to predation. It's not common; most big predators have learned that humans are dangerous and steer clear. But apex predators remain apex predators, and they will on occasion decide to prey on a human, especially a hiker or jogger alone and unarmed on a trail. That's what appears to have happened to a solo hiker on a mountain trail...

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said on Tuesday that he plans to “go on offense” against federal agents in California, charging them with crimes and preventing them from driving in the state. If elected governor in November, “what I’m going to do is make sure that they take off their masks and show their faces, that they show their identification, and if they commit crimes, that they’re going to be charged with crimes,” Swalwell said on MS NOW’s All In. “I also think if the governor has the ability to issue driver’s licenses to people in California,” he continued, “if you’re...

Elon Musk issued a stark warning after a viral TikTok clip appeared to show a Somali TikTok user making a chilling remark about his life. The video, which rapidly spread across social media platforms, shows an unidentified TikTok user livestreaming while playing a video of Elon Musk on her phone. After speaking in a non-English language, the user switched to English and stated: “I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He about to die.” WATCH: Musk responded directly on X with a terse message that quickly went viral, later pinning it to the top of his account: “Then it is...

[Catholic Caucus] US Bishop Celebrates Traditional Mass with Youth in OhioAuxiliary Bishop Robert Reed of Boston is celebrating a Mass in the Roman rite at the SEEK Conference 2026 in Columbus, Ohio, today.The Mass will be held at 2:15 p.m. at St Patrick's Church, with the liturgical assistance from the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP).The SEEK Conference is organised by the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) group. Several thousand young Catholics are expected to attend.

Explanation: In 2011, on January 20, NASA's NanoSail-D2 unfurled a very thin and very reflective 10 square meter sail becoming the first solar sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by astronomer Johannes Kepler, who had observed comet tails blown by the solar wind. But modern solar sail spacecraft designs, like NanoSail-D2, Japan's interplanetary spacecraft IKAROS, or the Planetary Society's Lightsail A, rely on the small but continuous pressure from sunlight itself for thrust. Glinting in the sunlight as it circled planet Earth, NanoSail-D2's solar sail...

Good news, dark chocolate lovers: the treat is rich in an ingredient that slows down biological aging in the body, according to a new study. The compound theobromine is an alkaloid produced in significant quantities by the beans of the Theobroma cacao tree. A team of researchers led by scientists from King's College London (KCL) found that people with more theobromine in their blood tended to also have signs of slower biological aging, as measured by two key biomarkers. Related: Microbe Recipe Could Be The Secret to Perfect Chocolate However, the study authors stopped short of permitting us to scoff...

Sex-selective abortion in India reveals a tragedy that exposes the hypocrisy of the feminism that claims so much to «defend» women. Approximately 46 million girls have been aborted in India in the last 50 years solely because they were female; this terrible phenomenon is driven by cultural issues where families prefer male children. In matrimonial customs, women are relegated to an inferior role, making the cost of raising a girl seen as an unwanted obligation. This leads to forced abortions, where mothers are pressured by husbands and in-laws.Here in India, violence begins in the womb; families see daughters as an...

The claim originated with The Babylon Bee, a Christian satirical outlet that Snopes has repeatedly debunked. Claim: In December 2025, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hired a Somali company for $8 billion to investigate fraud in the state. As reports of a sprawling tax fraud scheme by members of Minnesota's Somali community multiplied in late December 2025, a rumor circulated online that the state's Democratic Gov. Tim Walz had granted $8 billion to a Somali company to investigate fraud in Minnesota. For example, on Dec. 29, a Facebook user posted a screenshot of an article noting Walz's alleged decision to hire...

[Catholic Caucus] Memento mori: the Kim family and Micah’s witness to the worldI, like many other Catholics, follow the social media accounts of priests, writers and lay people for clarity, humour, and the quiet reassurance that I am not alone in how I see the world.Paul J. Kim is one such account. His content is light yet profound, catechetical without being heavy, and funny without being flippant. With shared East Asian roots, his family Korean American and my father Hong Kong Chinese, I found in the Kims a comfortable familiarity and an aspirational faith lived with joy, orthodoxy and warmth....