Free Republic

Former CNN host Don Lemon unloaded on Stephen A. Smith for being ignorant and “cozying up” to white people. While he claimed he is not one to criticize black people, Smith left him no choice after the radio host and sports analyst delivered his take on last week’s ICE agent shooting of a Minnesota activist. “I try not to criticize, especially black men, or just black people in general, you know, because we get so much sh*t. The rules are different for us,” Lemon said on his podcast show. “But Stephen A. Smith goes off and talks about sh*t that...

The Somali fraud scandal has captured Americans’ imaginations. The story is almost unbelievable: Somalis in Minnesota allegedly set up fraudulent housing services, meal programs, and autism-therapy offerings, which formed part of a “web” that stole “billions of dollars in taxpayer money.” Some fraudulently obtained funds, according to federal law enforcement sources, ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab terrorists.Meantime, on the West Coast, another pattern of fraud has taken root: foreign criminals have developed sophisticated schemes to cheat and steal from unsuspecting Americans. I spoke with a veteran blue-city police detective, who has spent two decades investigating serious crimes, in...

WASHINGTON, DC – Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the collapse of the country’s currency and surging inflation, with many calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. Yet the government’s response has differed from earlier waves of unrest. Whereas Iran’s rulers were quick to suppress the 2009 Green Movement and the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, the security forces were slow to react as the current protests intensified. Rather than brutally cracking down, President Masoud Pezeshkian initially responded with belt-tightening reforms to free up funds for subsidies to the poor. But this stopgap didn’t hold. While the...

President Donald Trump has renewed his push for the United States to acquire Greenland from Denmark, again prompting gasps and outrage from elected Democrats and European elites. But the historical record and geopolitical reality suggest that acquiring the island territory would be not only fair compensation for American involvement in Europe since the start of World War II, but also a critical check against encroaching Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic.Trump’s latest quip that Greenland’s defense is “two dog sleds” has the global liberal media tripping over itself to “fact-check” this obvious hyperbole and declare Trump an evil imperialist....

California is once again at the center of a high-stakes debate over taxes, population trends and the future of the state’s economy, as a prominent tech investor warns that a new wave of residents could leave within the next year. The warning lands at a moment when official data shows modest population growth returning, even as moving companies and demographers track persistent outflows to other states. The question is not whether people are leaving, but whether policy choices in the coming months will turn a steady trickle into the kind of large-scale relocation that reshapes communities and tax bases. The...

In his recent viral essay, “The Lost Generation,” published in Compact, Jacob Savage describes how U.S. media and academia in the 2010s closed their doors to millennial white men. The self-righteous, racist ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion wasn’t a problem only within those rarified fields. It also infected the U.S. armed forces. Under President Biden, senior officers worked to make our military less white, precipitating a recruitment crisis.During the first Trump administration, lethality was the military’s overriding focus. That changed in 2021. Mr. Biden issued an executive order embedding “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” across “all parts of the...

Hey, you up? Mayor Zohran Mamdani and President Trump have been exchanging “friendly” missives at least twice a week — as the unlikely bromance between the socialist and conservative commander-in-chief continues to blossom, The Post has learned. The former Astoria lawmaker and the Queens native have semi-regularly been chatting via text since their chummy White House meeting in November, discussing a wide range of topics, from the toppling of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and zoning red tape in Big Apple real estate, according to sources. Insiders with knowledge of the conversation described the tone of the texts as “friendly.” “It...

The U.S. Treasury and State Departments designated several chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) or specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs) on Tuesday. The State Department has designated the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as an FTO and SDGT, and its leader, Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh, as an SDGT, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a statement. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has determined the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood to be “SDGTs for providing material support to Hamas,” he added. The designations come after President Donald Trump ordered a review of Muslim Brotherhood chapters for designation...

Rand Paul is the junior United States Senator from Kentucky and a member of the Republican Party. He is the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and serves on several others, including the Committee on Foreign Relations. Paul is also a physician and the author of several books, the most recent of which is “Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up.” Look for it wherever books are sold.

Tiffany Burress, the wife of former New York Giants and Jets star Plaxico Burress, has officially launched her campaign for Congress as a Republican in New Jersey’s 9th District. Burress announced her candidacy in a press release Monday, touting her credentials as “an attorney, businesswoman, and community leader.“ The political newcomer also cast the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou, as a “disconnected” Washington insider. France: French farmers dump potatoes outside parliament to protest EU-Mercosur deal “I built my career outside of politics, in the private sector. That real-world experience is exactly what this district needs in Washington,” Burress said....

The Trump administration is ending temporary protected status for immigrants from Somalia, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a post on X. "Somali nationals with TPS are now required to leave the United States by March 17, 2026," a post from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said. Temporary protected status is provided to immigrants from some countries facing safety conditions, such as environmental disasters and armed conflict. Other countries currently covered include Lebanon, El Salvador and Yemen.

Get ready, Southland residents: the SoCal Women’s Pro Flag Football League (SCWPFFL) is coming in hot! The league announced Tuesday official plans to launch its inaugural season this year and establish SoCal as a “premier destination for elite women’s professional flag football,” according to an SCWPFFL media release. It will have franchises in all eight Southern California counties: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Imperial. Per the league’s media release, games will be played at top high school or junior college football stadiums in each of the eight counties.

Court documents allege trafficking, stash houses, and employing illegal immigrantsA federal investigation is underway into a Phoenix restaurant owner accused of harboring undocumented immigrants and employing them in a “sophisticated operation” across the Valley. According to a federal court filing, Yung Lau, the owner of multiple sushi restaurants, is accused of human trafficking and knowingly employing people who are not citizens of the United States. Lau has at least partial ownership of Sakura Sushi locations in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, and Gilbert. Court documents show that undocumented workers were living in “stash houses” in the East Valley. Some workers were reportedly...

The O’Keefe Media Group on Tuesday released video of a Secret Service agent assigned to JD Vance leaking sensitive information to an undercover reporter. The agent at the center of O’Keefe’s latest sting, Tomas Escotto, is a Biden holdover and has only been a US citizen since 2018. Escotto told the O’Keefe Media Group undercover reporter details about how Vance is surrounded and revealed advanced security procedures. The Secret Service agent also revealed Vance’s future travel plans and sent images from Air Force Two while he was traveling with Vance. Tomas Escotto said he voted for Joe Biden and opposes...

A judge sentenced a former U.S. Navy sailor convicted of espionage in August 2025 to over 16 years in prison, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Monday press release. Jinchao Wei, also called Patrick Wei, was apprehended on espionage charges in August 2023 as he showed up for work on the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Essex at Naval Base San Diego, according to the DOJ. Prosecutors accused Wei of selling national defense information to an intelligence officer employed by the People’s Republic of China. A federal grand jury later indicted him. He has now been sentenced to 20o...

Have you ever “taken to the streets” over any issue? Marched in a protest? Chanted whatever some weirdo ordered you to repeat? Maybe, but probably not. The only protests or marches I’ve ever attended were one against war a friend wanted to go to and he didn’t want to drive to DC alone (plus, I’d never been to DC at that point), one I got extra credit for in college involving newspaper strike, and one that was an annual even to “protest” pot laws because we went to meet chicks and get stoned in a crowd – mostly the novelty...

Marketplace plans from the Affordable Care Act no longer feel very affordable to many people, because Congress did not extend a package of enhanced subsidies that expired at the end of 2025. Last week, the House did pass legislation to extend the expired subsidies, and negotiations have moved to the Senate. Without a deal, an estimated 4.8 million will go without coverage this year. But even without a health plan, people will still need medical care. Many, like the Sorys, have been thinking through their plan B to maintain their health. The Sorys both lost jobs in November, within days...

Excerpt- With phone lines opening back up for calls from inside the Islamic Republic, two sources, including one inside Iran, told CBS News on Tuesday that at least 12,000, and possibly as many as

Explanation: What just leapt from the Sun? A towering structure of solar plasma suddenly rose from the Sun's surface and unfurled into space -- a structure so large that many Earths would easily fit within it-- marking the onset of a dramatic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The event was captured in striking detail in late 2024 by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), whose continuous monitoring improves space weather forecasts and helps humanity better understand how solar activity affects satellites, GPS, radio communications, and power grids on Earth. The featured video blends three extreme-ultraviolet views from SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA),...

For just the third time since Chuck Noll was hired in 1969, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be hiring a new head coach. Mike Tomlin's run with the Steelers is over.