Free Republic

Hollywood-style hit job just changed campaign ads forever— and it’s breaking the Internet by DBS Wire Share Tweet A viral, AI-generated campaign-style video featuring reality TV personality Spencer Pratt is blowing up online — and it’s not your typical political ad. The spot leans hard into Hollywood spectacle, casting Pratt as a caped crusader of sorts — yes, think Batman, but make it “Prattman.”The target is unmistakable: California’s political establishment, portrayed as exactly what critics on the right have been saying for years — insulated, self-satisfied elites who wouldn’t recognize real-world problems if they tripped over them on Rodeo Drive.

Months after allowing customers to openly carry guns, Publix has changed its open carry firearm policy at all Florida stores. Publix changes its open carry firearm policy in Florida stores, permitting only law enforcement officers to openly carry guns while shopping. Photo by Nicole Lopez-AlvarPublix, the Florida-born grocer with locations across Miami-Dade and Broward counties, appears to have quietly reversed its open-carry policy. No announcement, no press release. Just a new stance rolling out Tuesday through customer service reps and its own chatbot. The news arrives one day after Publix dropped to fourth on America’s most trusted grocer ranking, behind...

Townhall.com - Leading conservative site covering news, politics, and culture with analysis and commentary. A Federal Court Just Handed Gov. Greg Abbott a Win in His Fight Against CAIR. A Federal Court Just Handed Gov. Greg Abbott a Win in His Fight Against CAIR. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced late last year that he was designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist groups. Such a move would ban them from "buying or acquiring land in Texas and authorizes the Attorney General to sue to shut them down," Abbott said at the time. Abbott...

I am pleased to announce that there will be a THREE DAY CEASEFIRE (May 9th, 10th, and 11th) in the War between Russia and Ukraine. The Celebration in Russia is for Victory Day but, likewise, in Ukraine, because they were also a big part and factor of World War II. This Ceasefire will include a suspension of all kinetic activity, and also a prison swap of 1,000 prisoners from each Country. This request was made directly by me, and I very much appreciate its agreement by President Vladimir Putin and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hopefully, it is the beginning of the...

Newly unsealed documents reveal the disgraced financier had been using a catchphrase from a 1931 ‘Our Gang’ short for years before it appeared in his purported final note.Among the stranger threads running through the Epstein files is a minor obsession with The Little Rascals. The connection first drew attention this week, when a federal judge unsealed a handwritten note purportedly written by Epstein in July 2019, roughly three weeks before his death, following a suspected suicide attempt at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The note ends with the phrase, “Whatcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!” The...

It's a list no one wants to be on, and it's growing in a North Texas city. Authorities believe more than 80 people since February have had their mail, which included checks, stolen from a post office in Plano. The vast majority of the thefts have happened at one postal location, and both victims and authorities are concerned that the crime could be an inside job involving postal employees. The U.S. Post Office on W. Parker Road is a place Jim Frankenfield no longer feels comfortable even approaching. "I stopped using it, don't even go near it," he said. Patty...

Iran

The neurotransmitter serotonin, best known for its role in regulating mood, may also influence the severity of tinnitus, new research has found. According to a mouse study by scientists in the US and China, increasing serotonin signaling in a specific brain circuit increased behaviors associated with the neurological disorder. Since serotonin is often targeted to alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, this finding could help guide the development of treatments that relieve these conditions without exacerbating tinnitus. "We've suspected that serotonin was involved in tinnitus, but we didn't really understand how. Now, using mice, we've found a specific brain circuit...

I was 22 when my grandmother forgot me. It took her 12 years to die from Alzheimer's. It started with little things, like where her glasses were or what day it was. Soon she didn't know who I was. For a while, she addressed me as her son, but then, as the disease ate away more of her mind, she forgot him too. Then I was the young, handsome version of her husband, until he too faded away. After a while, I was just a nice young man who came to visit her. The rest of the time, she was...

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent asserted in a post on X that prior to the start of the Iran war, the U.S. intelligence community agreed that the Islamic Republic was not developing a nuclear weapon. "One of the many tragedies of this war is that before the war began the U.S. Intel Community, including CIA, was in agreement that Iran wasn't developing a nuclear weapon & that Iran would target U.S. bases in the region & shut down the Strait of Hormuz if they were attacked by Israel & the U.S.," Kent wrote in a post on Thursday....

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a 73-year-old Republican who has been in office for three decades and is presently running for re-election, revealed in an interview this week with News Center Maine that she suffers from a nervous system disorder. Collins — shown in two recent polls to be trailing radical Democrat candidate Graham Platner by at least 27 percentage points — indicated, however, that the disorder has not interfered with her job. "What I have is an extremely common condition that is called a benign essential tremor," Collins explained. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, an...

Kamala Harris needed her mouth washed out with soap after delivering a profane assessment of the war in Iran during an appearance in Las Vegas Thursday. In describing the ongoing conflict, the former vice president repeatedly trailed off before resorting to a curse word to rile the audience up. “When you look at this war in Iran, which the American people do not want, which was not authorized by … should not have been initiated … he talked about obliterating … it’s all just …,” Harris said before pausing as the audience egged her on. “Bulls—t!” she yelled out before...

Kyle Rittenhouse, who gained fame for opening fire at a 2020 civil rights rally in Wisconsin, was hospitalized after a venomous spider bit him, the noted firearms enthusiast said Wednesday. Rittenhouse, 23, told his 100,000 followers on X that he fell victim to a brown recluse, posting pictures of himself in a hospital bed strapped to monitors with one close-up shot of the bite mark. “The spider, like the commies, also thought it was a good idea to come after me while I was armed,” Rittenhouse posted. “He did not survive.” Rittenhouse appeared to be in good spirits, joking that...

A wave of low-cost Chinese-made vehicles is slipping into California through Mexico — and the issue is now headed to Washington. Panicked lawmakers are working to close a border loophole that allows cars that would never clear US safety or emissions standards to enter the country. In Mexican border cities like Tijuana’s Zona Río, dealerships are packed with new electric vehicles, hybrids, and SUVs, many of them Chinese-built and priced around $20,000. That undercuts the American market so drastically that even basic new cars cost far more in the US. Congress is now looking at the issue more critically, with...

A disabled woman is suing the homeless services department in Multnomah County, Oregon, after she was denied rent relief due to her low score on the county's race-based prioritization rubric, which awards more points for requesting "culturally specific services"—including "BIPOC"-focused housing—than for having a disability. Michele Mei, a white woman with cerebrovascular disease, filed the lawsuit after she was told that she did not meet the cutoff for housing assistance, Fox 12 Oregon reported last month. The complaint came in the wake of an investigation by Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries, which found "substantial evidence of an unlawful housing...

Explanation: Which way is Comet R3 PanSTARRS going? Not towards the star at the top of the image, because that is Rigel, which, being far in the background, is unrelated to the comet. Not through the nebula in the image middle, because that is the Witch Head Nebula and it, too, is far in the distance -- but not far from Rigel. Not into northern skies because over the past week Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has moved into southern skies and is now best visible in Earth's Southern Hemisphere toward the west after sunset. Angularly, Comet R3 PanSTARRS is slowly...

Use of antiretroviral treatment may slow accelerated biological aging by nearly four years, according to study results presented at the Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Munich (ESCMID Global 2026). ... People living with HIV are prone to developing comorbidities, such as cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and cognitive impairment, earlier than their HIV-negative peers. Despite antiretroviral treatment, HIV remains in the body and can cause persistent immune activation and chronic inflammation that leads to a host of health problems.

John Fetterman, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.Many might not know, but I won my first race by a single vote to be mayor of Braddock, a small steel town — one of the poorest in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania — where 90 percent of the population has left. It was a forgotten community.I wasn’t interested in playing political games. I wanted to help deliver change. It wasn’t about being a Democrat or Republican, but about making sure places such as Braddock received the benefits, focus and investments they deserved for their contributions to this great country.As a...

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen resigned from her position on the state's highest court after allegations resurfaced of a possible conflict of interest tied to Utah's redistricting case. Gov. Spencer Cox expressed his appreciation for Hagen's years of service in a statement confirming her resignation. He added that information regarding the process to fill the vacancy left by Hagen would be announced in the coming days. Hagen's resignation comes nearly a month after allegations surfaced about a possible connection between her and David Reymann, the former lead attorney for the League of Women Voters,...

F.B.I. agents on Wednesday searched the business office of a powerful Democratic state legislator in Virginia who had played a key role in a high-stakes congressional redistricting fight. The legislator, L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, is a senior leader in the State Senate, where she has served for more than 30 years. Two people familiar with the case said the search was related to an investigation opened during the Biden administration that has continued, examining possible corruption and bribery related to marijuana dispensary businesses. The F.B.I. agents executed a search warrant at an office in Portsmouth, Va., for businesses that...