Free Republic

“Crisis is when brittleness meets shock. “— Yuri Bezmenov’s Ghost on X. By shutting down the government for a minimum of ten days supposedly over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Wile E. Coyote Democratic Party is about to blow up another Acme bomb in its mangy muzzle. I will tell you why. First, this DHS business is just a stupid prank to bamboozle the public. It will not shut down ICE operations, as Chuck Schumer pretends. ICE was already funded with $75-billion in last year’s Big Beautiful Bill. The shutdown will only defund the Coast Guard...

New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani is having trouble finding the means to fund his radical left-wing agenda so he is now going to an old favorite for Democrats – defunding the police. Apparently, Democrats have still not learned their painful lesson in this exercise in stupidity. To make matters worse, it has now been reported that Mamdani needs so much money because he is creating all kinds of new diversity positions in his cabinet, another lesson the left has not yet learned. Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, proposed at the end of his term that...

I invited @TuckerCarlson to take advantage of his upcoming visit to Israel and meet our thriving Christian community - to see with his own eyes the people and realities he speaks about so confidently and so often on his platform.This letter was sent a week ago to every email address listed on his website. Not a single response. For someone who claims to care so deeply about the Christians in the Holy Land - @TuckerCarlson, your silence is deafening…

20 February 2026 Friday after Ash Wednesday basilica of FatimaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: A(II).First readingIsaiah 58:1-9The sort of fast that pleases meThus says the Lord:Shout for all you are worth, raise your voice like a trumpet.Proclaim their faults to my people, their sins to the House of Jacob.They seek me day after day, they long to know my ways,like a nation that wants to act with integrity and not ignore the law of its God.They ask me for laws that are just, they long for God to draw near:‘Why should we fast if you never see it,...

Somehow, they didn't foresee this happening when the billionaires fled the fleecing. Most of New York City's public employee unions endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor -- UFT teachers union, AFSCME, SEIU Local 1199 -- a lot of the big important ones. So it must have come as a surprise them that Mamdani's first target to finance his huge $120 billion budget is likely to come not from billionaires, as he claimed would happen, but from a raid on their pension funds, which by the way, cannot flee. Oh, what irony. Instead of going after the millionaires when the billionaires fled,...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(2/20/26)[Prayer]A New Study For A New Year: PersonalitiesGenesis 27:30-49 30 And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. 31 And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. 32 And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art...

IDAHO FALLS — Two young adults are facing felony charges after police say they beat a 16-year-old girl bloody, allegedly slamming her head on the ground for flirting with one of them. Kierstan Leann Morgan, 19, and Jiler Joe-Bryan Hainsworth, 18, were both charged in 7th District Court with felony aggravated battery and felony witness intimidation. Hainsworth is also facing a misdemeanor assault charge. Court documents show the witness intimidation charge against Morgan was dropped on Aug. 21. Morgan faces a possible 15-year prison sentence if convicted, whereas Hainsworth faces a possible 20-year sentence.

France advancing bill to criminalize anti-Zionism. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announces government will back bill to ban anti-Zionist phrases. 'Calling to destroy Israel is calling for genocide.' French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the country's intention to make anti-Zionism a criminal offense. She made the statement during a speech at the annual meeting of the Council of Jewish Institutions in France. Speaking at the annual gathering of the French Jewish Institutions Council, Lecornu clarified that the government would no longer settle for simply imposing penalties for classic antisemitism, promising, "In April, we will bring to Parliament a bill that...

A former pastor at a Western Kentucky church has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a minor, Kentucky State Police announced Monday. David Rodgers, 40, of Utica, was arrested around 7:35 p.m. Feb. 16 after an investigation determined he had a sexual relationship with a juvenile “through a position of special trust.”

ith all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged. It will not play second fiddle for long. The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the Russian Federation — be acknowledged as sovereign Russian territory. As the war heads...

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the country's intention to make anti-Zionism a criminal offense. She made the statement during a speech at the Speaking at the annual gathering of the French Jewish Institutions Council, Lecornu clarified that the government would no longer settle for simply imposing penalties for classic antisemitism, promising, "In April, we will bring to Parliament a bill that criminalizes anti-Zionist expressions." He explained, "To define oneself as anti-Zionist is to question Israel's right to exist. It's a call for the destruction of an entire people under the guise of ideology." .....

In a stretch of Louisiana with about 170 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants, premature death is a fact of life for people living nearby. The air is so polluted and the cancer rates so high it is known as Cancer Alley. “Most adults in the area are attending two to three funerals per month,” said Gary C. Watson Jr., who was born and raised in St. John the Baptist Parish, a majority Black community in Cancer Alley about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. His father survived cancer, but in recent years, at least five relatives have died from it....

A Virginia judge has just blocked an April referendum on the Democrats’ egregious gerrymandered map for the state.Tazewell County Circuit Court issued the welcome ruling Thursday, according to Just the News. The ruling was a response to an emergency filing from the Virginia GOP and the Republican National Committee. The gerrymandering is not only blatantly partisan, it violates the law.

Ever since he announced that he was running for Bexar County judge, Ron Nirenberg has been driving all around town. The former San Antonio mayor has zipped from debates to luncheons to fundraisers to neighborhood meetings to television and podcast appearances as he tries to convince voters to choose him over County Judge Peter Sakai in the Democratic primary. He's done that driving a dark grey Tesla Model Y. But Tesla's shiny signature "T" logo is nowhere on the car. Instead, just above the license plate, there's a Toyota emblem. The SUV "used to be a Tesla," Nirenberg jokes. "I'm...

Two random-ish headlines from today's Times - London, that is, not New York. First:UK blocking Trump from using RAF bases for strikes on Iran The disagreement over the use of British sites is behind the US president's withdrawal of support for the Chagos Islands dealSecond:Andrew's arrest is the worst constitutional crisis in a century The King has to deal with a far bigger threat than have any of his recent forebearsIn the scheme of things, these are the same story. Almost everything is these days.Set aside for the moment whether the Pentagon bombing Iran will accomplish any meaningful strategic objectives...

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Tomorrow night in Times Square in New York, Muslims will gather to pray the Ramadan tarawih prayer, and New Yorkers will do this.

Bruce Springsteen can seemingly offer “No Surrender” from his TDS. Announced this week, his 2026 “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour starts symbolically in Minneapolis, ground zero for the anti-ICE wine-mom rebellion against federal law enforcement. “We are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair — the cavalry is coming,” The Boss crowed in a promotional video that dropped Tuesday. The cavalry he’s promising is a Boomer “No Kings” protest. But instead of being gratis, like most demonstrations, one will have to pay through the nose to get into arena doors. Don’t believe me? Springsteen has...

1995: CBS’s Dan Rather warns that Americans are being “replaced by foreigners.” I found an entire one-hour episode of CBS’s 48 Hours about the harms of both legal and illegal immigration, titled “Slamming the door.” Let’s go through the whole thing in detail. 🧵

Three bears were caught on camera charging through a ski slope right through on-coming skiers at Northstar California Resort. 😱🐻