Free Republic

[...] So the two no-longer-quite-so-superpowers of the Cold War are both fighting proxy wars: Since Lindsey Graham backdoored his way into the "Maidan Revolution" in 2012, America has been using Ukraine to get at the Russians. And yet America is now totally stunned that Russia is happy to use Iran to get at the Americans: witness Putin giving the Iranian foreign minister, on this week's visit to Moscow, the King Charles treatment. Meanwhile, China sits off to one side, staying focused on its overriding goal of ensuring the end of what it regards as an aberrent half-millennium of Euro-American domination....

Do you ever wonder why so many Blue states refuse to hand over their voter rolls to the federal government? After all, there is a federal law that requires certain measures to ensure ballot integrity, passed in the wake of the 2000 Florida debacle. It requires, among other things, that states clean their voter rolls of ineligible voters. But these states refuse to do that, and they refuse to show that they aren't breaking federal law. Of course, every sentient person knows exactly why they do both of those things: they cheat, and want to make it as hard as...

Nearly $870,000 worth of industrial drones capable of dispersing large amounts of liquid chemicals were stolen from a New Jersey company in what could become a "nightmare scenario," according to a new report. Fifteen Ceres Air C31 drones were stolen from CAC International in Harrison, N.J., on March 24, according to The High Side Substack. The drones were allegedly stolen by a delivery driver who duped the company, the report said. The New Jersey State Police recovered the drones on Monday, the agency said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "On April 27th, the New Jersey State Police Cargo...

Explosive sexual harassment claims against a high-ranking female JPMorgan executive were reportedly “fabricated,” according to an exclusive from the New York Post. On Wednesday, the Daily Mail broke a story about a lawsuit with allegations of sexual harassment against Lorna Hajdini, a high-ranking executive with JPMorgan, from one of her male subordinates after he joined the leveraged finance team in the spring of 2024. Identified in the suit only as “John Doe,” he claimed, among other things, that Hajdini turned him into her “sex slave,” would frequently threaten his career advancement if he rejected her sexual overtures, and would regularly...

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host a State Dinner for King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom, Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in the East Room of the White House.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WACH) — Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette stood firm on Wednesday when being asked about being disinvited from SC State University's commencement following days of student protests. Evette stood by her characterization of student protestors as a "woke mob" and said she would not be apologizing. "Let's just start calling things for what they are," she said. "I don't plan on apologizing." She also questioned whether all of the protestors were SC State students.

A suspect was arrested after allegedly running a secret meth lab at Michigan State University’s Wells Hall, the institution's largest academic building. Xin Tong, 31, is facing felony charges in connection with the alleged operation, as well as misdemeanor trespassing, according to police. Officers responded earlier this week to Wells Hall over reports of a suspicious person, a strong odor and unknown substances on the floor, WILX reported. Officers found Tong and confirmed his identity by using his expired MSU student ID. Tong was in possession of multiple bags, which officers later searched through after obtaining a search warrant, discovering...

Trump recasts America not as an abstract creed but as a civilization rooted in a distinct people—arguing that change the people, and you change the nation itself. Here are two quotations, one from Donald Trump this week and one from Thomas Jefferson. I won’t tell you which is which. Here’s the first: “For nearly two centuries before the revolution, this land [America] was settled and forged by men and women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and...

Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly… pic.twitter.com/a8gRXkW6BH— US Attorney Pirro (@USAttyPirro) April 30, 2026

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh 🚨 HOLY SMOKES. DOJ report just dropped a bombshell: The Biden DOJ aggressively targeted and harassed Christians, privately called them "CULTISTS" and sought out HARSH prison sentences for peaceful protests Even worse: They used the SPLC to do it! This is outright Christian persecution, right on American soil! LOCK UP everyone who carried this out. "That went beyond disagreement and moved to punishing Christians who held conservative religious beliefs in conflict with the administration's pro-choice gender ideology agenda." "The report found the Biden DOJ brought multiple cases against pro-life activists, many of them Christians, under the FACE...

An increasing number of U.S. states have passed laws that allow health care providers – including doctors, nurses and pharmacists – to refuse to treat patients based on their personal or religious beliefs. While these conscientious objection laws have long existed for issues such as abortion, their effects on LGBTQ+ people have not been well studied. As of April 2026, 11 U.S. states have enacted conscientious objection laws specifically targeting LGBTQ+ people. As public health researchers who study the effects of public policies on the health of LGBTQ+ people, we wanted to examine how these laws have affected the roughly...

Iran is considering using dolphins armed with mines to blow open the Strait of Hormuz, which has been under a financially crippling US military blockade for weeks, according to a report. While the tense extended cease-fire with the US holds, a growing number of Iranian hardliners believe that the financial crisis sparked by the US blocking Iran’s oil exports amounts to an act of war and have called for resuming military action. That military action could include unleashing previously unused weapons to attack US warships deployed in the region — including mine-carrying dolphins, according to Iranian officials, the Wall Street...

The fun kicked off in Texas last July, following President Trump's urging, pushed the Texas Legislature to redistrict the Lone Star State's congressional map in a pro-GOP direction. Missouri and North Carolina soon followed, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom to get in on the action: Golden State voters approved the use of a new map last November. Virginia voters narrowly approved a new congressional map that heavily favors Democrats. This week, Florida responded with a Gov. Ron DeSantis-led redistricting that heavily favors Republicans. In the interim, some other states, such as Ohio and Utah, redistricted for non-voluntary reasons such as...

It’s not exactly uncommon to suddenly hear a gubernatorial candidate make tall promises as election day draws nearer. So when a California gubernatorial candidate mentions bringing Dr. Anthony Fauci to justice for the way COVID policy was handled, it might be easy to dismiss it as little more than standard campaign fare. After all, Fauci was infamously pardoned by former President Joe Biden at the end of his lone term. But for Steve Hilton, the Republican gubernatorial candidate leading the crowded pack in RealClearPolitics’ current polling, this doesn’t appear to be an empty threat. Hilton spoke to conservative content creator...

Revolutions announce themselves in the language of historical necessity and virtue, yet they are typically propelled by anything but noble motives. Among the most corrosive is envy—the intimate, humiliating awareness of another’s superior influence, charisma, or legitimacy. In the charged atmosphere of revolutionary upheaval, where institutions are weak and moral claims are absolute, such envy rarely appears in its naked form. Instead, it is transmuted into ideological accusation, recoded as vigilance, and ultimately enacted as persecution. The result is a recurrent pattern: “Like Saturn, the revolution devours its own children” (Jacques Mallet du Pan, 1793). This is due less to...

Almost 5,000 people in California are newly diagnosed each year with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. The greatest burden of these new infections occurs in men who have sex with men and Black and Latinx people. Since 2012, four HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications have been introduced that, taken by people who do not have HIV, reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by 99% and from a drug injection by at least 74%, according to the National Institutes of Health. To make the PrEP drugs more widely accessible, the state of California enacted two laws...

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at getting tens of millions of American workers enrolled in retirement accounts. The order further directs the Treasury Department to implement the Federal Saver’s Match program to boost Individual Retirement Account (IRA) savings. Here’s what you need to know about the new accounts and the billions of dollars in federal matching available. Who is eligible? Through the website TrumpIRA.gov – launching in January 2027 – all Americans will be eligible to browse and enroll in “high-quality, low-cost” IRA plans offered by private-sector financial institutions. The plans offered will cater to “American workers...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are seeking to remove Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi from his position, Iran International reported. According to the report, which quoted two sources familiar with the matter, Pezeshkian and Ghalibaf believe that Araghchi is following instructions from Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Ahmad Vahidi on matters relating to nuclear talks - without informing Pezeshkian. Thus, in the opinions of Pezeshkian and Ghalibaf, Araghchi is no longer acting as a cabinet minister as much as he is acting as an aide to Vahidi, who is reportedly the most powerful figure in the IRGC....

Today, Angel Studios releases an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm in theaters across the country. Conservative parents have a far better option that costs nothing more than a library card and an afternoon of their time. Read the book to your children instead. The novella runs roughly 30,000 words and takes the average reader about two hours to finish. With a child asking questions along the way, you have a three-hour education in the nature of power, the seductions of utopian rhetoric, and the bitter arithmetic of revolution. The film offers something else entirely. The film offers a...