Free Republic

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the top US priority in the Iran war was keeping oil and gasoline prices low for Americans, with preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon ranking second.The remarks contrasted with President Donald Trump's repeated framing of the fight: that entering the war had the sole objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, even if that meant short-term economic sacrifices for Americans.Vance's comments also underscored the growing reality that the war now centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has forced to the top of the negotiating agenda. "I...

The British Telegraph reported that US officials are investigating suspicions that funds originating from a network linked to China reached organizations involved in pro-Palestinian protests in the UK. According to the report, American lawmakers investigating allegations of covert Chinese support for the left-wing organization Code Pink are examining the group's activities in the UK as part of a broader inquiry into foreign interference. Code Pink has encouraged activists to participate in large pro-Palestinian marches and organized demonstrations outside the British Ministry of Defence and at the London offices of a weapons manufacturer. The investigation is focusing on businessman Neville Roy...

Everyone expected Starship Flight 14 to attempt the first ship catch in history. Then a government filing showed up, and buried inside it is one sentence that changes the entire mission. Bigger than anything SpaceX has announced out loud. And it comes with a solid date. Meanwhile, a strange piece of hardware just rolled through the Port of Brownsville toward Starbase. Almost nobody noticed it. It might be telling us the truth about SpaceX's new Starship launch pad. SpaceX's New Plan For The First Ever Ship Catch | 21:51 What about it!? | 662K subscribers | 25,662 views | August...

14 August 2026Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest, Martyr on Friday of week 19 in Ordinary Time Saint Maximilian Kolbe Church, Toms River, NJ Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: A(II).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst readingEzekiel 16:1-15,60,63I clothed you with my own splendour but you made yourself a prostituteThe word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows, ‘Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her filthy crimes. Say, “The Lord says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite....

Somewhere out there is my favorite of all time. Sure, I can say the same for maybe 200 more. I’m talking specifically about my Meyer Lansky column, the one where Jews of all kinds, rose up to be counted. Lansky was first among equals so far as Murder Inc. In a world of gangsters dominated by Italian Americans, the Jewish mob was no slouch. As the saying goes, they loved their mothers. These Jews were tough, and they were styled right here in America. Meanwhile, over in Germany, Hitler and his goons had begun to popularize the Nazis…early and mid...

Weeks before Americans begin voting in the midterm elections, the Trump administration wants to change the rules for voting by mail before the courts have even decided whether the president has the authority to do so. Two federal courts have already concluded that key parts of President Trump’s mail-ballot executive order cannot take effect while the litigation proceeds. Now, the administration is asking the Supreme Court to set those rulings aside and allow the order to take effect anyway. If it succeeds, the rules governing how millions of Americans vote by mail could change just weeks before Election Day. And...

This is the first photograph that was ever taken of me. A few hours after I was born on March 31st, 1974. A lot of people over the years have remarked that I was the brightest and most alert baby that they had ever seen. That they had never beheld a newborn who had a smile like that. One person told me that even then it was like I was plotting mischief upon an unsuspecting world. Keep that photo in mind while I openly ponder some recent developments. A few days ago Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed legislation that radically...

The United States Department of Justice has released a formal Office of Legal Counsel memorandum opinion clarifying that law-abiding Americans may carry constitutionally protected firearms into publicly accessible post offices for self-defense without violating federal criminal law. The opinion, dated August 12, 2026, and authored by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora C. Pettit, interprets 18 U.S.C. § 930(a), the longstanding prohibition on possessing firearms or other dangerous weapons in federal facilities, as not reaching ordinary self-defense carry in post offices open to the public. Section 930(a) makes it a federal crime to knowingly possess a firearm in a federal...

LAWRENCE, Mass. — Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña has been arrested on wire fraud and money laundering charges. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts, DePeña allegedly obtained more than $1.5 million in COVID small-business loans and used the money for personal and political expenses. DePeña, 61, is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. According to federal prosecutors, DePena used the money to pay personal tax debts, fund his mayoral campaign and pay off more than $880,000 in high-interest mortgages on properties he owned in Lawrence. The charges center on Economic Injury Disaster...

It’s not what AOC wants you to think it is. Readers familiar with Dr. Seuss’s classic, The Cat in the Hat, will remember the twin chaos agents Thing 1 and Thing 2. “‘These Things are good Things,’” the Cat reassures the children whose mother has inexplicably left them under the supervision of a fish. “‘They are tame. Oh, so tame! / They have come here to play.’” The Things briefly feign innocence, then quickly reveal themselves to be marauding imps, knocking over nightstands and ruining the linens. “I do not like the way that they play!” says the son of...

From 2015 to 2017, El-Sayed ran the Detroit Health Department. That put him in charge of the city’s Animal Care and Control operation during some of its ugliest years. According to records obtained by the Daily Mail, nearly 4,680 dogs and cats were euthanized while he held that post. In 2015 alone, the shelter killed 1,988 dogs and 272 cats. That was more than a quarter of every dog put down in the entire county that year. The live-release rate sat at a miserable 20 percent. Four out of five animals that walked through those doors never walked out.A former...

Liberal Democrat Governor Maura Healey signs bill allowing babies to be aborted all the way up to birth. Fox News says, “Democratic Gov. Maura Healey was met with applause and smiles as she signed away Massachusetts’ gestational limits on abortion, making the deep-blue state the 10th to permit the procedure up to birth. Under the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, health care workers will have greater discretion in determining whether to perform an abortion later in pregnancy, without facing legal penalties under the state’s previous restrictions. Massachusetts is now the tenth state to allow this kind of de-humanizing law.”...

Progressive Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed has wooed voters with his credentials as a doctor with a mission of healthcare for all. But his record overseeing Detroit's troubled animal-control system, which saw high rates of animal euthanasia, has received far less attention as he's campaigned. From 2015 to 2017, El-Sayed served as executive director and health officer of the Detroit Health Department – a powerful post that put him over the city's Animal Control operation during some of its darkest days. In a 2017 ABC News profile of his bid for governor, El-Sayed pointed to his record as Detroit's health...

The CEO of Flock Safety apologized Thursday for cases in which law enforcement agencies misused the company’s license plate reader technology and announced a series of policy changes aimed at preventing further abuse. “The short message would be, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that the system has failed you,” CEO Garrett Langley said. Langley said the company is recommending law enforcement agencies reduce the time camera data is stored from 30 days down to seven. Earlier this week, New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon revealed his office had been storing license plate reader data for 90 days. McMahon said the office...

Flock Safety raised $960M total, reaching a $7.5B valuation backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund. Toka reportedly lets clients hack cameras, alter footage, and erase evidence without leaving forensic traces. Researchers demonstrated live camera-feed hijacking at Black Hat, proving footage tampering is technically achievable today. SNIP

When they are weak, communists and Muslims create seemingly durable pluralist partnerships that they then ruthlessly destroy once they achieve power. In revealing the commonalities of the Reds and the Greens in the Red-Green Axis, we have elucidated their shared goals of violence, wealth redistribution, inequality before the law, a binary world, monopoly rule by the elites, controlling the totality of society, and transitional-phase slaughter. Here we explore the game plan to infiltrate society and co-opt its machinery. Islamic political systems and Marxist-Leninist communism both construct power through organizational methods designed for times when they are still too weak to...

Today we laugh at Socialism/Communism (While we still can!)

For years, Americans have heard warnings about the national debt climbing into the tens of trillions of dollars. The numbers have become so large that they barely register anymore. Thirty trillion. Thirty-five trillion. Nearly forty trillion. But the real danger may no longer be simply how much America owes. It is how much America must now pay to keep borrowing. The U.S. Treasury is selling 30-year government bonds at yields around 5.2%, potentially the highest borrowing cost for that maturity in roughly a quarter century. That may sound like something only Wall Street investors should care about. It isn't. Because...

Kansas students have been forced to put cell phones into lockers before they set foot in class as part of a blanket ban on the devices in schools across the state. Thousands of students in grades K-12 are banned from using their cell phones during the school day under HB 2299, which outgoing Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law in March and hailed as a tool to “reduce distractions in the classroom.” School districts are granted the flexibility to enforce the policy as they see fit. Schools in the Kansas City public school district have spent $150,000 on special...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem🇮🇱 (8/14/26)[Prayer]Personalities2 Samuel 3:22-39Joab Murders Abner 22 Just then David’s men and Joab returned from a raid and brought with them a great deal of plunder. But Abner was no longer with David in Hebron, because David had sent him away, and he had gone in peace. 23 When Joab and all the soldiers with him arrived, he was told that Abner son of Ner had come to the king and that the king had sent him away and that he had gone in peace. 24 So Joab went to the king and said, “What...