Free Republic

James Talarico, the radical Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Texas, once credited Islamic teachings and authors as an inspiration for his Christian faith. 🚨UNEARTHEDJames Talarico — who said he "hates Christianity" — praised Islam for inspiring his religious beliefs:"I’ve learned as much about my faith from Salman’s tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi, as much as I have from Christian authors..." pic.twitter.com/2UeksY9Hko— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 27, 2026“I’ve learned as much about my faith from Salman’s tradition, from the Islamic mystics, from poets like Rumi, as much as I have from Christian authors,” Talarico...

Nearly 150,000 California voters had their mail-in ballots rejected for the state’s June primary, a spike from recent elections even as the state attempts to make voting easier with the goal of boosting participation and counting every ballot. California has become notorious for its ponderously slow vote counts that can drag on for weeks and sometimes longer, largely the result of multiple changes over the years that were intended to increase turnout but have done little to achieve that. Among the changes: Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still...

In Nolan's new adaptation of the Odyssey, Homer's epic poem about Odysseus's struggle to return to his kingdom in Ithaca after the Trojan War, the "People of the Sea" hang over the plot like a dark cloud -- a rumor of coming destroyers and harbingers of a dark age mentioned by multiple characters along the way... Let's clear up one thing first: No ancient text refers to this group by the name "Sea Peoples." This is a scholarly term popularized by the 18th-century Egyptologist Gaston Maspero to refer to a collection of groups that threatened New Kingdom Egypt... It was...

Semiconductor capital equipment stocks took a brutal U-turn on Monday. Heading into the opening bell, the sector was riding a pre-market high. The optimism was fueled by easing geopolitical tensions in Iran and a blockbuster Wall Street Journal report revealing that Nvidia is in talks to guarantee a massive $250 billion in financing for an OpenAI data center project. But that AI-driven euphoria evaporated instantly. ASML erased early gains of over 2%—and dragged U.S. peers Applied Materials (AMAT), Lam Research (LRCX), and KLA Corp (KLAC) down with it—following a breaking report by The Information. According to the report, a Shanghai-based,...

Another church is preparing to disappear from the American landscape. Not because it was burned by an angry mob. Not because Christians were driven out by soldiers. Not because the government outlawed the Gospel. The former Richfield Christian Reformed Church in Clifton, New Jersey, was purchased by the Islamic Center of Passaic County. Now plans call for the existing building to be demolished and replaced with a mosque measuring approximately 40,000 square feet--more than six times the size of the current structure. The cross has already given way to the crescent. Soon the former church itself may be gone. It...

Christopher Nolan cited Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation of “The Odyssey” as an influence on his own interpretation of Homer’s epic poem while on the press tour for his latest blockbuster. Wilson is not returning the favor. In a negative review of Nolan’s “The Odyssey” for the London Review of Books (via The Guardian), Wilson criticized Nolan’s adaptation for lacking “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth.” The author, who is also a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, added that Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has “nothing convincing to say.” “I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes...

Concern is growing in Irish universities over a high rate of refusal of study visas to students in Gaza who are due to take up college scholarships in Ireland this September. RTÉ News understands that upwards of 20 Gazan students, who have all been accepted onto fully funded scholarships for third-level courses, have had their visa applications turned down by Irish immigration authorities. Others are awaiting outcomes. Sources within the universities say the refusal rate this year is in marked contrast to last year, when more than 80 Gazan students were granted visas and left Gaza in an evacuation organized...

🚨 JUST IN: Ugandan Mayor Mamdani is facing outrage for PUBLICLY POSTING a SEARCHABLE database of "wealthy" property owners in NYC "The city just posted a searchable list of every homeowner on the hook for his new tax. Names, addresses, 30,000 of them." 🤯 "A socialist mayor handing out a rolodex of the rich in a city that just watched a CEO get gunned down on a sidewalk. Sounds like a HIT LIST." This communist wants more violence, MAKE NO MISTAKE.

Each year, millions more graduates are thrust into China’s already saturated jobs market. The situation for this year’s cohort, flooding into an increasingly crowded pool of applicants fighting for an insufficient number of positions, is arguably the bleakest yet. The competition is intense, especially for jobs that offer weekends off and proper social insurance With more than 10 million Chinese students graduating each year since 2022, a figure that is only growing, it is the scale of the situation that is an exacerbating factor, with authorities tasked with finding meaningful work for the equivalent of a medium-sized European nation each...

Restaurant chain Cracker Barrel announced Monday that its current chief executive officer, Julie Masino, will step down as CEO and board member, effective Aug. 10. Cracker Barrel shared the news in a press release announcing David Deno as the company's new CEO and board member, effective the same date. According to the release, Masino will remain with the company until Oct. 9 "in an advisory capacity." Deno previously served as the CEO of Bloomin' Brands, the company behind Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and more. "Cracker Barrel is a truly iconic American brand, defined by its unique combination...

ringleader in Minnesota’s massive Feeding Our Future scandal has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attempting to purchase a not-guilty verdict with a staggering $120,000 cash bribe. Abdiaziz Shafii Farah, 37, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud for his role in the brazen plot to bribe a federal juror during his 2024 fraud trial, the Justice Department announced Friday. Farah had already been sentenced to 28 years in prison for helping steal tens of millions of dollars from a taxpayer-funded program intended to feed needy children during the COVID pandemic. But stealing from hungry...

Amid Cuba’s months-long fuel and electricity crisis, one of the island’s most iconic exports is feeling the pinch: cigars. Retailers say the industry is facing one of the worst supply squeeze in history as blackouts, fuel shortages and shipping disruptions make it nearly impossible to produce luxury cigars and get them off the island in the temperature controlled conditions they require. “I’ve been telling clients, ‘Listen, it’s been months since I can get them,’” said Manu Harit, a London-based cigar specialist whose business is almost entirely built on Cuban cigars. Over the last year, he said, orders have been filled...

I went into Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey expecting a cinematic event. Instead, I saw one of the worst movies ever made. I made it to the 90-minute mark before walking out, but I really should have bailed a half-hour in. We have been utterly bamboozled. As someone who appreciates a script that actually works, I can tell you this screenplay is nonsensical. Combine that with unwatchable lighting and completely incomprehensible audio, and the whole production just falls apart on screen. Matt Damon is completely miscast and entirely too soft to play Odysseus. Honestly, the campy old Steve Reeves movies or Sinbad...

[Catholic Caucus] Lawyer for Rupnik’s alleged abuse victims decries ‘total secrecy’ of trialA lawyer representing five accusers of disgraced Fr. Marko Rupnik said that the women have ‘not been summoned’ and don’t even know the names of the judges in the trial.A lawyer representing five of the women who have accused Father Marko Ivan Rupnik of physical and psychological abuse has decried the proceedings of his trial for neglecting the “minimum” needed for “justice.”Reports emerged earlier this month from MessainLatino and AdVaticanum that Rupnik was acquitted in his Vatican canonical criminal trial of all charges of “violence” related to his...

Democrats blocked Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman from speaking during the Bronx Dominican Day parade on Sunday — with one state pol admitting she snubbed him over ties to President Trump. Blakeman wasn’t given the chance to address the crowd during part of the celebration on the Grand Concourse that involved comments from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. The Republican, who is currently serving as the elected Nassau County executive, was told by lefty Assemblywoman Amanda Septimo he couldn’t speak even though some in the crowd called out to “let him speak.” “This is exactly what life...

No primary—especially a Senate primary—should go on this long. But Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, having dragged on for months, has turned into an interminably vicious grudge fest—one that’s not likely to subside until voters finally go to the polls on August 4 and choose between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed.But the Michigan primary is also so bitter for the same reason that it has been so interesting. Of all of the 2026 races, this is the one that best captures the current fissures in the Democratic Party—and which seems to best predict where the fault lines of the 2028 presidential...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14)Religion Forum threads labeled *Prayer* are closed to debate of any kind.1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Creech Air Force Base, NevadaCreech Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) command and control facility in Clark County, Nevada used "to engage in daily Overseas Contingency Operations of remotely piloted aircraft systems which fly missions across the globe." In addition to an airport, the military installation has the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab, associated aerial warfare ground equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicles of the type used in Afghanistan and Iraq. Creech is the aerial training site for the USAF Thunderbirds and "is one of two emergency divert airfields" for the...

This video explores **China’s recent development of a domestic Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine** (0:00), a crucial piece of technology for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Despite being long dominated by the Dutch company *ASML*, China has managed to build a working prototype by taking a different engineering approach to bypass technical hurdles. **Key takeaways:** * **Light Source Innovation:** Instead of just mirroring *ASML*'s method of hitting moving tin droplets with lasers, China is actively developing **Laser-Induced Discharge Plasma (LDP)** (2:40). While *ASML* moved away from this method years ago due to scalability issues, China is betting on modern advancements to make...

The following offering on the “birthright citizenship” decision in Trump v. Barbara picks up where your humble servant’s initial offering left off. Specifically, it will address in greater detail the remote – yet now thanks to the Barbara decision – actual potential for the neutering of the Constitution’s “natural born Citizen” (“nbC”) presidential eligibility restriction, at least as understood by the Founders. By analogy, reading the Barbara majority opinion is like finding randomly arranged seashells on the beach cryptically messaging “86 – nbC.” Misguided, absurd …, and dangerous. There is as yet no confirmation of the rumor that James Comey...