Free Republic

America's allies are stronger, its rivals weaker, and the global balance has shifted. With a whimper rather than a bang, the world has become a different place than it was in January 2021, when Donald Trump left office. Almost everything we are now told about the global status quo is mistaken—largely because critics focus on what Trump says rather than on what he does. Rather, the Left—and some on the Right—are furious whenever Trump tweets, says, or does something that offends their delicate sense of taste, tradition, and decorum. Their outrage leads them to ignore whether this “Art of the...

ALBANY — Gov. Kathy Hochul is once again stamping her feet, accusing federal immigration authorities of overreach for allegedly planning to expand detention facilities in upstate New York. In a letter to US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Hochul is demanding answers from ICE about a rumored lease on a warehouse in the Hudson Valley near Newburgh, as well as plans to expand detention capacity at federal facilities in Rochester and Batavia. “New Yorkers, like all Americans, deserve honest answers about what their federal government is doing in their communities. And I demand your department provide that transparency,”...

A man's 'dream property' in Oregon turned into a nightmare after he found more than 50,000 tires dumped on his land. Khanh Tran, a soon-to-be father, purchased a 1.2-acre property in April where he hired contractors to build his new home in Portland, according to KATU. Tran had agreed to remove a small pile of about 50 tires on the land, but when he returned in June with a contractor, the pile had become an ocean of rubber. Footage showed stacks of tires in mountains several feet high that the homeowner estimates are anywhere between 50,000 and 75,000. 'It was...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem🇮🇱 (7/14/26)[Prayer]Personalities1 Samuel 1313 Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, 2 Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel; whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in mount Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. 3 And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. 4...

If you are paying any attention, you will have noticed by now that all of the energy in the Democratic Party at the moment comes from the faction calling itself the Democratic Socialists of America. As I reported in this post on June 24, DSA candidates had just won primaries for three safe-Democrat congressional seats in New York City, as well as eight safe-Democrat state legislative seats in the state, six in New York City plus one in Buffalo. In a ninth race in Syracuse that was still too close to call on June 24, the DSA candidate has since...

Americans are some of the most mobile people on Earth: They move homes about three times more often than ­Europeans. As a recent report shows, that mobility is a problem for New York’s rising socialist movement. A new Citizens Budget Committee report found that New York’s share of millionaires, those earning more than a million dollars a year, declined more than any other state since 2010. The state went from having 12.7% of all millionaires in the nation to 8.7%. Worse yet, in the more recent years, the state’s highest earners have been leaving much faster than its lowest earners....

According to a Pew survey, 44% of American Muslims recently surveyed expressed a favorable opinion of Hamas. The United States designated Hamas a foreign terrorist organization long before it killed 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, raped women, burned families alive, tortured civilians, and kidnapped children and elderly grandparents. Its leaders have repeatedly declared that Israel should cease to exist. Yet nearly half of Muslim Americans surveyed said they view the group favorably. Many Muslim Americans have publicly condemned terrorism while backing the rights of Palestinians. But 44% support is significant. Imagine if a comparable percentage of any other religious...

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is extremely upset after being detained in the West Bank by armed Israeli settlers. This incident took place last Wednesday, but Khanna and The New York Times chose to report on it Saturday. Why Khanna was even there is another question. The 2028 election is still a long way off, and this soft launch was, frankly, awkward. The stunt got nuked by Israeli Ambassador Dr. Michael Leiter, who cooked Khanna’s stunt on CBS’ Face the Nation yesterday. Additionally, the California liberal was in a restricted military zone where civilians were not allowed. Lastly, Khanna refused to...

"Independence is our birthright. We don’t intend to trade it for rule by a self-appointed priesthood of 'international law.'" — Marco Rubio The International Criminal Court (ICC) is going down. At least, it is if Secretary of State Marco Rubio has anything to do with it. "Most of us would struggle to imagine a world in which U.S. soldiers, police officers, Border Patrol agents, and elected leaders could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries across the globe, found guilty under international laws we neither consent to nor control, and then imprisoned thousands of miles...

“Legal immigration… in many ways, is actually worse than illegal immigration” for ordinary Americans, Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) told Breitbart News Saturday. Politically, “I think the tide is turning, and you know, as I’m speaking with my colleagues, and more and more are starting to voice the concerns around this” legalized inflow, Moore told host Matthew Boyle.

After Muslim medical personnel were caught on camera threatening to kill Jewish patients in Australia, a judge issued a ‘secret order’ protecting them and refusing to accept the evidence. “You have no idea how many Israeli dog came to this hospital and I,” Rashad says before making a throat-cutting gesture. “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.” After the Muslim terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, attack victims had their names hidden so Muslim nurses wouldn’t cause them harm. She was struck in the head by shrapnel and began bleeding heavily before she was admitted to Liverpool Hospital under her...

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NSSF-adjusted background checks rose sharply in June 2026, showing renewed strength in the firearms market even as total FBI NICS checks slipped slightly. The bigger story may be the National Firearms Act market, where NFA-related background checks surged 177.1% from June 2025, continuing the suppressor and short-barreled firearm boom after the federal NFA tax dropped to $0.From NSSF: The June 2026 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,123,006 is an increase of 11.7 percent compared to the June 2025 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,004,986. For comparison, the unadjusted June 2026 FBI NICS figure of 1,886,539 reflects...

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The US announced a new round of strikes on Iran on Monday, hours after President Donald Trump said that the United States is 'reinstating' a blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. 'We're taking out all of their capability for anything having to do with the strait, the Hormuz Strait,' Trump told CBS News Monday evening. 'And I think in the end we will end up just controlling the whole thing.' Trump said the US is prepared to hit Iran 'very hard' on Monday and Tuesday, saying the country’s heavily fortified nuclear facility at Pickaxe Mountain was a target....

A criminal who hijacked a plane from Cuba to Florida in 2003 and served 20 years in prison had been in ICE custody awaiting deportation — till a Dem-appointed judge dumped him back on the street last week. Cuban national Miakel Guerra Morales — who assaulted crew members during his terrifying midair hijacking — was detained by ICE in December, then ordered freed July 8 by Florida Judge John E. Steele, who said he’d been in custody too long. The Department of Homeland Security on Monday railed against the Bill Clinton-nominated federal judge’s decision to release Guerra Morales. “This activist...

On Tuesday, July 2, United Launch Alliance launched the final Atlas 5 rocket flying in a 551 configuration. The rocket featured a five-meter payload fairing, five solid rocket boosters, and one RL10 upper stage engine. The mission, Atlas 5 Amazon Leo 8 (aka Leo Atlas 8), sent 29 satellites into low Earth orbit with deployment happening less than 30 minutes after liftoff. Amazon purchased nine flights onboard Atlas 5 rockets. The first of those launched the Protoflight mission in 2023, followed by eight batches of production satellites. The first Atlas 5 551 rocket launched on January 19, 2006, in support...

Sam Neill, the genre-spanning New Zealand actor best known for his starring role in the “Jurassic Park” movies, has died, his family said Monday. He was 78. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” the family said in a statement on Instagram. “The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free,” the family said in the statement, which did not specify a cause of death. Neill, who died in Sydney, had announced in April that he was cancer-free after several years of treatment for...

Amnesty International UK has expressed "regret" over the publication of a report that labelled dozens of Christian, pro-life and gender critical organisations as "anti-rights". The report was hastily removed from Amnesty's website last week after it triggered a huge backlash, with JK Rowling and John Cleese among the high profile figures denouncing it. At the time, Amnesty said the report had been temporarily withdrawn so that an internal review could be carried out. In a further statement addressing the furore on Monday, Amnesty International UK said the report had not gone through the proper internal checks before being published on...

Just one of many JD Vance memes making the rounds. AI generated but pretty funny.