Free Republic

Furious Napa Valley vineyards facing oblivion as crucifying new fees drop: ‘Can see where this ends’ California’s Napa Valley is fermenting into a full-blown revolt as furious vineyard owners warn a new fee could leave them paying tens of thousands of dollars a year — the latest financial punch threatening to crush the struggling wine industry. Farmers across the iconic Northern California enclave say they are staring down financial disaster as the state moves to crucify them for their use of groundwater. Under a new law coming into effect later this summer, wineries will have to pay just under $99...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contacted Libertarian candidates in Iowa, including one congressional candidate whom he encouraged to leave a competitive U.S. House race to help Republicans retain control of Congress, according to a recent report. In an exclusive published June 25, The Washington Post reported that Kennedy spoke by phone on June 11 with Rick Stewart, the Libertarian candidate in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, during which he said he was acting as a “liaison” with the White House. During the call, Kennedy reportedly argued that Democratic control of the U.S. House would weaken President Donald...

The collaboration between director Michael Powell and writer/producer Emeric Pressburger began on the eve of World War Two and built up a considerable head of steam making films for and about that war. Some were obvious propaganda (Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft is Missing) while a couple were far too idiosyncratic to match any workable definition of propaganda (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale). Blimp was so at odds with the British government's idea of what aided the war effort that Churchill himself ordered the military not to assist the filmmakers during its production....

The fight over DEI in the military centers on a fundamental question: is removing ideological programs politicizing the ranks, or depoliticizing them? As I read and hear the usual cavalcade of woke, retired Democrat generals and admirals like McRaven, McCaffrey, Franken, and others falsely claiming that Pete Hegseth is “politicizing” the senior ranks of the U.S. military, inside my head, I am screaming in rage at the impunity with which they spread this pernicious and wholly inaccurate falsehood. Hegseth is doing EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE as he depoliticizes our military’s ranks by eradicating the very most political doctrine to ever infect...

NASA is racing to save an aging telescope from falling back to Earth with a daring rescue mission. The $30 million salvage operation gets underway as soon as this week with the planned launch of a robotic lifesaver. NASA hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the Swift Observatory to a higher orbit where it can continue hunting for some of the universe’s biggest explosions. A three-armed spacecraft built by Katalyst will chase after Swift once it takes off from an atoll in the Pacific’s Marshall Islands aboard an airplane-launched Pegasus rocket. Liftoff could occur as early as Tuesday. Scanning...

In the information age, we all know what screen-induced eye strain feels like. One Edinburgh man decided he'd had enough and took a novel approach to relieving his eyestrain. A massage gun! I don't know if you've ever used one of these things. But they feel a lot like getting jack-hammered by a miniature-Bruce-Lee. So, imagine that in your eyeball. ArsTechnica reports that the man was seen by ophthalmologists after complaining of an increasing number of floaters and flashing lights in his vision. When they took a look, his eyes were a mess: In his right eye, he had multiple...

Trump Counterterrorism Chief Dr. Sebastian Gorka and PragerU CEO Marissa Streit discuss the threats facing America at home and abroad, from jihadists and cartels to communism and left-wing political violence. They also tackle the rise of socialism among young Americans, the decline of free speech in the UK, and why the Trump administration's clear-eyed understanding of radical Islam and political Islam sets it apart from every administration before it. Plus: why America's moral leadership remains essential in a dangerous world.

There’s a new trend that will make it even harder to buy or sell a house. There is a highly lucrative theater production playing out across the American landscape, and if it is allowed to go unchallenged, it threatens to paralyze both private commerce and public health under the guise of safety. It is a shell game driven by an institutional ecosystem of specialists who have learned that the easiest way to manage a narrative, extract compliance, and dodge accountability is to invent an invisible, unprovable enemy. The most visible front of this theater is currently emerging in the real...

ParisReuters — Eleven people were killed ‌when a small plane crashed in the northeastern French town of Tomblaine ​on Sunday, the local prefecture ​said. The plane belonged to a parachutist ⁠school. The pilot and all ​10 passengers – five students and five ​instructors – died in the accident, the prefecture said. The French interior minister was on his ​way to the scene, the ​interior ministry said. Yves Seguy, the regional prefect, told ‌broadcaster ⁠BFM the aircraft appeared to suffer damage before plunging vertically to the ground. The crash occurred ​in a ​built-up ⁠area near a shopping centre.

A New York City landlord has gone viral for dragging Marxist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he announced a massive rent freeze last week. As The New York Times reported, a New York City panel voted on Thursday to freeze rents for nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. This fulfilled one of Mamdani's prominent campaign promises. The Rent Guidelines Board approved the freeze on both one- and two-year leases in a 7-to-1 vote. Increases were thus paused on more than 40% of all apartments across the five boroughs. The Times revealed that this includes high-rise luxury apartments, deeply affordable subsidized units,...

There have always been those who respond to war throughout the church differently. - Pacifists- Those who believe in Just War Theory - Others who believe in the “Blank Check” model—without questioning War is complicated, ugly, and addictive. It reveals our sinfulness in a way that few controversies can. God was bold enough to send his son to die in order to save us, not by storming the Temple with swords and shields, not by overthrowing the Roman Empire, but with a slow and non-violent march to the top of a hill with a cross on his back.

June 28 (Reuters) - A helicopter belonging to Saudi ​oil giant Aramco crashed on Sunday ‌in Ras Tanura on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast on the Gulf, west of the Strait of ​Hormuz, killing 14 nationals, the state ​news agency reported, adding that the ⁠cause was unknown. Aramco had resumed crude oil loadings ​on Friday at its Ras Tanura terminal ​in the Gulf after they were halted for nearly four months. "The relevant authorities have launched a ​full investigation to determine the cause ​of the crash," the state news agency added. Aramco did ‌not ⁠respond immediately to an emailed request for...

Authorities called to investigate illegal dumping in Palmdale this week instead stumbled on a clandestine drug lab and 800 pounds of methamphetamine stashed in storage containers, officials said Friday. Code enforcement officers in the High Desert suburb located 36 miles north of LA made the shocking find on Thursday when they visited a vacant lot after receiving reports of illegal dumping there, according to a Palmdale news release. The stunned code enforcement officers immediately alerted police, who descended on grimy white storage containers packed with massive crystal-like chunks of pure gak spread across a blue tarp. Other massive chunks of...

Gunther Eagleman™ @GuntherEagleman 🚨 65% OF TPS HOLDERS ARE ON TAXPAYER WELFARE. Rep. Chip Roy just dropped the hammer: “65% of the people who come here who are on TPS status are on welfare. The President is correct to end TPS.” Temporary Protected Status? Try PERMANENT welfare magnet. Haiti TPS since the 2010 earthquake, 16 YEARS later. 91% of them entered ILLEGALLY first, then got the work permits and protection. While American families grind, pay taxes, and watch their hard-earned money subsidize households that were never supposed to stay forever. This is the exact scam the Trump administration is finally...

Nice to see the UK has its priorities right. Britons have been ordered to remove air conditioning from their homes - despite the country baking in up to 40C heat this week - under a fresh Net Zero crackdown. Planning officials at councils have told residents to take down their cooling units over concerns about carbon dioxide emissions. They say AC, despite the heat, should serve only as a 'last resort'. But not enough of a "last resort" to, you know, keep you from roasting to death, apparently. Instead, authorities ordered citizens to exhaust all other forms of avoiding heat...

From Roman freedom to Viking happiness, the iconic words in the Declaration of Independence reveal thousands of years of humans wrestling with how to live well together – and the power of language to put those ideas into action. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." When Thomas Jefferson drafted these words in the Declaration of Independence, two things were on his mind. One: he needed to find "terms so plain and...

Older buildings, substandard construction and geography left many neighborhoods in Venezuela vulnerable to strong earthquakes like the ones that struck the country this week. Engineers and other experts said the back-to-back earthquakes on Wednesday were among the most intense to hit the country in more than a century, leveling buildings and leaving more than 900 dead with the number expected to rise. Videos and satellite imagery from the disaster zone reviewed by The Associated Press reveal scores of multistory buildings had collapsed. Among the factors that left so many structures at risk: Some housing complexes in northern Venezuela were constructed...

Film critics hate it, but it is resonating with the general public. Director Uwe Boll just released a movie that is ticking off all the right people. Called Citizen Vigilante, it is an unapologetic rejection of globalism, mass migration, Islamic conquest, and “woke” leftism. The movie bashes politicians, judges, NGOs, and law enforcement agencies that have bent over backwards to excuse inexcusable crimes committed by non-Western immigrants. It unequivocally demands a return to law and order. It urges viewers to seek justice. It threatens the continuing survival of any Western government that continues to allow outsiders to prey on its...

How Sparta, the most powerful Greek city-state, collapsed in only 20 years. The Decline and Fall of Sparta | 11:02 toldinstone | 627K subscribers | 82,207 views | Febuary 25, 2026Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:38 Classical Sparta 1:29 Spartan politics 2:22 Helots 3:24 Population decline 4:37 Hubris 5:25 The Battle of Leuctra 6:42 Messenia liberated 7:35 Enter Macedon 8:08 Attempts at reform 9:08 Irrelevance 9:37 Roman Sparta

An award-winning California news reporter faced backlash for her “insensitive” comments towards Bosnia-Herzegovina during her World Cup coverage, forcing her to apologize for taking the joke “too far.” ABC7 Los Angeles’ Abigail Velez was covering the US national team’s match at a viewing party on the streets of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, when she updated viewers on America’s next opponent after the 3-2 loss to Turkey. “The next round, Team USA will play Bosnia next Wednesday and one thing about Bosnia, I could not point out where it is on a map,” Velez quipped. “I don’t know the first thing...