Free Republic

The United States enters its 250th year in fantastic shape. Elsewhere, not so much. We are the oldest continuous democracy in the modern world. In large part, this is because our founders were the products of the Enlightenment who fashioned a written Constitution, which provides both freedom to citizens and checks and balances to restrain those in power. Massive celebrations are called for, with big ships, flyovers, and the largest ever fireworks display in the cleaned-up National Mall. It’s extremely hot, but that doesn’t seem to have dampened enthusiasm, and crowds have been large at scheduled events. Just as they...

The final sketch of Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness’s second episode, like many of the HBO historical comedy series’ sketches so far, featured some big deal guest stars alongside Larry David, as well as some of the show’s most direct political commentary to date. It most notably featured Rob Reiner as George Washington, one of his few posthumous performances following his tragic death in December 2025. In the sketch from “Farewell,” Washington is wrapping up his second term as President with the announcement that he will not be seeking a third (term) — a decision explained in his...

The latest fear, of course, is that the AI boom is stealing crypto’s thunder. With the blockbuster IPO of SpaceX and the market debuts of Anthropic and OpenAI expected to be worth trillions, cryptocurrencies are no longer the new, bright, shiny things on the market. It’s hot outside in New York City, but there’s a crypto winter in the markets – and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, industry players tell On The Money. To be sure, we’ve seen this before: 2018, 2020, then in 2022, when a confluence of factors including the FTX scandal that landed...

All right, Variety, this is weird. Rob Reiner and his wife were stabbed to death by their schizophrenic son. Yes, he was afflicted with Stage 4 TDS, but that's no way to die. We'd let the man rest in peace. Still, Variety is reporting that Reiner is having the last laugh at President Donald Trump with a posthumous role as George Washington in Larry David's “Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America."

Nathan Livingstone @TheMilkBarTV Three minutes of Tucker Carlson praising Islam. Worth viewing and is captioned.

Nearly 1 million people who bought President Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion. The analytics firm’s assessment was calculated this week after Mr. Trump signed an annual financial disclosure showing that he walked away with a $636 million payout on the same crypto bet, part of a haul of at least $2.2 billion from all of his business ventures in 2025. Once a crypto skeptic, Mr. Trump embraced the profit-making opportunity of digital currencies in 2024, while he was running for...

New satellite images show activity at 'Pickaxe Mountain,' an underground site in the Zagros Mountains where IAEA inspectors have not been allowed to visit, even as Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow show little movement after last year’s US strikes “The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it will not seek or develop nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program.” These are two clauses in the memorandum of understanding signed by Iran and the United States, but new satellite images of a secret site are raising questions over whether Tehran truly intends...

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife Rama Duwaji ditched America’s 250th anniversary, jetting off this week for an Islamic “spiritual wellness” retreat on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca.

New York, July 2 - The city's mayor fired his deputy chief of staff Thursday after the aide had the audacity to propose that city resources focus on New York City rather than the Palestinian cause, in a move progressive activists haled as a principled stand against localism. The disgraced staffer, identified as career civil servant Rachel Katz, reportedly circulated a memo suggesting the administration tackle subway delays, migrant shelter overflows, and street crime before allocating more municipal staff time to Nakba commemorations and virtual Gaza solidarity hours. Sources say Mamdani read the document, turned pale with ideological fury, and...

A German man fell so in love with the USA while traveling the country during the World Cup that he cried tears of joy and admiration during an interview with NBC 10 in Boston.

"Coming to [Christ] as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God" (1 Pet. 2:4). God’s view of Christ is the only accurate standard by which to measure Christ’s worth. I once read about a conversation in the Louvre Museum in Paris. One of the curators of the museum, a man with great appreciation for art, overheard two men discussing a masterpiece. One man said to the other, "I don't think much of that painting." The curator, feeling obliged to reply to the man's statement, said to him, "Dear sir, if I...

As the public funeral for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei entered its second day on Sunday in Tehran, a video from the event shows some insight into the types of things being said on stage at the event. In the video, one of the speakers at the funeral openly called for the killing of US President Donald Trump, in revenge for the elimination of the Supreme Leader in the opening strike of the joint US-Israeli war against the regime. "The one who killed my Imam, why shouldn't we kill him?" the speaker asked. "This is our shame. If we...

As the country marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a new 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞 survey lands like a gut punch: nearly half of all Americans — 𝟒𝟔% — don’t know what America 250 is actually celebrating. Among Gen Z, it’s worse: 𝟔𝟏% couldn’t say. Laura Ingraham didn’t hold back on air: “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴? 𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵? 𝘖𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺?” The answer, judging by the numbers, is...

Daily Readings from the USCCBFourteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeAt that time Jesus exclaimed: “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Matthew 11:25–27This passage beautifully summarizes the entire Christian life—the life...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's speech for our nation's 250th birthday has gotten a lot of well-deserved criticism. It was pretty awful on the whole. But there was one particular part on Friday that got a lot of attention, in which he lambasted America, attacked Elon Musk, and demonized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). JUST IN: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani used America’s 250th anniversary to sharply criticize the country, accusing the U.S. of allowing children to go hungry while billionaires and “oligarchs” gain more power.He said America’s wealth was built by working people with “calloused, dirt-streaked hands" while accusing...

President Donald Trump said extreme heat in the nation's capital on July 4 won't stop him from giving his big speech. In fact, despite triple-digit temperatures in the forecast, the famously long-winded Trump is promising to give lengthy remarks ahead of a historic fireworks celebration that will mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

For decades, retirement advice has focused on one question: How much should you save? But two veteran financial experts argue that’s the wrong place to start.The stock market has rewarded investors handsomely over the long run, and with major indexes hovering near record highs again, it’s easy to assume that simply investing consistently will be enough to fund a comfortable retirement.History suggests otherwise.According to retirement researchers Edward McQuarrie and William Bernstein, building a successful retirement has less to do with chasing market returns and more to do with understanding the kind of life you actually want to live.Their upcoming book,...

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Raids conducted against 'far-right' political operations in multiple European countries including France. They included contractors linked to France's National Rally and its leader the candidate leading opinion polls in next year's Presidential Election Jordan Bardella. The European Public Prosecutors Office on a search for evidence involving a group of nationalist parties in the European Parliament... Amended 'assisted dying' legislation approved by the National Assembly in a 295-232 vote. The euthanasia bill rejected by France's Senate forcing it back to the National Assembly. The new provisions said to give medical professionals the ability to abstain and end the notion of... Banning...

Baseball has some really cool moments now and then. This is one. Some background: 1. Since College Baseball World Series, and 2. Several recent World Cup games ... Fans have taken up singing John Denver's "Country Roads." Well at today's Brave's home game, when our star catcher came up to bat (he's a good hitter) the crowd started signing 'take me home, country roads,' And Olsen (the batter) LAUNCHED a home run far into the right field stands. The crowd sang loudly and cheerfully as he circled the bases. Happy Birthday, USA.