Free Republic

I really wanted the column to run. I didn’t think it would, but I felt obligated to try to get it in. Toward the end of last month, before the Seattle Storm hosted the Indiana Fever, I spoke to people attending a rally in support of Sophie Cunningham outside Climate Pledge Arena. The Fever guard had recently taken a stance against biological males competing in women’s/girls sports, and a few dozen folks showed up to express their gratitude for her position. One of them was 16-year-old Ahnaleigh Wilson, who’d lost to a biological male in a track and field race...

Delusional Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sought US political clout far beyond the dreams of any British royal since King George III, The Post has learned, with the Duchess of Sussex angling to take over the Senate seat held by Kamala Harris ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Weeks before Democrat Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump, a source says, Markle requested a sitdown with California Gov. Gavin Newsom because she “wanted to be considered to be appointed” to the seat held by Harris, which she vacated just before becoming vice president on Jan. 20, 2021. The source added...

MOST PEOPLE believe humans are different. The reason is that Homo sapiens has evolved to be conscious. Many animals feel pain and pleasure; some appear to be self-aware. But the human mind’s unique potential to exhibit a sense of self marks out every member of the species for special treatment. In his encyclical in May, Pope Leo upheld this insight by drawing a line between humanity and its growing army of bots. Artificial-intelligence systems, he said, do not undergo experiences or feel joy or pain. He is not alone. Many people feel that to confer personhood on AIs would be...

As someone quipped on Twitter yesterday: America 250 finally has something to celebrate. Either that, or Donald Trump's immigration enforcement policies will get more popular. Who says self-deportation won't work? Six years after coming to the US to launch a self-promoting media empire while claiming to shun the spotlight, Britain's part-time royals have decided to return to the United Kingdom after all. Fox News gives a brief rundown of the timeline of their oh-so-brief run in the A-list circles of Tinseltown... FOX & Friends @foxandfriends · Follow ROYAL RETURN: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are returning to the U.K. After...

Residents of Kyiv are sleeping once again in overcrowded metro stations or in cars in underground garages. Above, the air war is turning into a turkey-shoot. Russia is bombarding the city with ever more ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Ukraine, which had previously thwarted most such attacks with Patriot anti-missile batteries, is “going Winchester”—military jargon for running out of ammunition. Ukraine’s plight is the most acute sign of the West’s shortage of interceptors. America’s depleted arsenal also helps explain why President Donald Trump has repeatedly retreated from threats to return to war with Iran. America’s allies are alarmed. Switzerland expects its...

Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico took heat Thursday for suggesting teen killer Karmelo Anthony’s murder conviction was unjust because there were no black jurors at his trial. Talarico — who is seeking to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988 — was asked about the high-profile case during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” radio show earlier this month and seemingly argued that Anthony’s conviction was proof the justice system “is not working for black Texans.” “Well, I’ve done a lot of work in the state house on justice reform, and right now we’ve got...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio outperforms Vice President JD Vance in three hypothetical 2028 presidential match-ups against some of the top-polling Democrats, according to a survey released Thursday. Pitted against former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rubio tops both by the same 48%-43%, the Emerson College National Poll showed. Meanwhile, Vance bests the “Squad” congresswoman 46%-44% but comes up short against the failed 2024 Democratic presidential nominee by 4 percentage points.

I don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ‘accelerationism’. It is generally used to describe a tendency on the left, though is increasingly heard on the right too. The basic idea of accelerationism is that there are certain flaws in the societal structure which if pushed could bring things to their inevitable conclusion more quickly. It is why there are so many people on the left of politics who say that sustainable government spending should be discouraged. It is not just because they are economically illiterate. What they really hope is that a speeded-up financial disaster will expose...

...For 2025, we brought it down by more than a percent. ...

Peter Daszak, who as president of EcoHealth Alliance directed government funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, thanked a former Fauci aide in newly-released emails for helping shut down public speculation over the possibility that Covid-19 emerged from a lab. David Morens, a former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to hiding federal records from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests during the Covid-19 pandemic. Investigators obtained emails between Daszak and Morens in which Daszak mentioned sending bottles of wine to Morens and thanked him for his “behind the scenes shenanigans.”...

With under nine weeks to go until early voting begins in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, both Ken Paxton and James Talarico have been campaigning around the state, meeting voters everywhere from restaurants to music halls as they’ve pitched their political visions. But on television, Texans have only seen one of them. Talarico, an Austin state representative, has spent over $25 million on advertising since the general election began in late May, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact — with nearly $10.7 million deployed on broadcast and an additional $8.4 million on streaming devices. (The rest has gone to a combination...

North Korean IT workers are systematically infiltrating hundreds of global corporations, including multiple Fortune 500 companies and a U.S. government agency, by posing as remote tech freelancers. Fox News reports that federal law enforcement is warning that North Korean operatives posing as IT workers are applying for remote jobs at U.S. companies, and many are getting hired. SNIP>>> The scheme relies on advanced technical deception and physical coordination to maintain the illusion of being domestic remote workers, according to Skadden. The Federal News Network reports operatives are purchasing stolen American identities from the dark web and using artificial intelligence to...

You’re going to see this clip and wonder what the heck a civic agent is. It’s a bit hard to explain to an American, because we don’t really have anything like this, except for maybe a “mall cop.” In Spain, it’s a public-order officer who patrols Barcelona’s streets and public spaces, dealing with nuisance behavior and calling police when things get too serious. And according to local reports out of Barcelona and a clip shared by the UK’s Tommy Robinson, an unruly migrant was confronted by these “mall cops” and things got crazy pretty quickly. One of the civic agents...

The FReeper Canteen Presents... ~ Tell Us Your Favorite... "Stop / Go" Songs ~ Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.

DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Police in Dearborn Heights and Melvindale are investigating and reviewing evidence after fliers and business cards tied to the Ku Klux Klan were found scattered across both cities Tuesday evening. Dearborn Heights police received a call for service Tuesday after KKK fliers were thrown from a vehicle. Residents also found business cards containing KKK contact information thrown around the area. Residents say the fliers were found in yards, in streets, and at a children's playground on Robert Street, where a racial slur was also written in the wood chips. The fliers were recruiting people into the...

Alaska’s first two ranked-choice elections were embarrassments, marked by complexity, confusion and delay. But, oh, for the good old days of mere humiliation. This year operatives finally cracked the many devious ways the system can be outright gamed. Alaska is now the poster child for dirty-pool politics. Alaskans won’t know until the end of August which “final four” candidates for each office will be on their ranked-choice November ballot after this week’s jungle primary. Residents will need that time to recover from the trauma of a monthslong campaign in which they were not valued as “we the people,” but duped...

President Trump Joins Michael Cohen on When You Know… You Know 25 mins.

Between a judge's order and voluntary agreements, the State of Minnesota and Ramsey County achieved legal blockades against ten people accused of planning gang violence at the Minnesota State Fair, after years of gang fights and gunfire have caused chaos at the fairgrounds. Earlier this month, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi filed a civil lawsuit against ten alleged members of the "Muddy" and "Ville" gangs. The lawsuit came in response to social media posts indicating planned fights on the fairgrounds.

A township in Ohio just made a huge statement against the highly-controversial Flock surveillance cameras popping up around the nation. Last week, a grand jury refused to indict a man accused of damaging a Flock camera system in Union Township, Ohio. Cody Morelock was facing felony charges for the incident. But now, the whole case has been dismissed. Here are the details: Kacee Allen @KaceeRAllen A Clermont County man who faced felony vandalism charges for allegedly destroying a Flock safety camera in Union Township has had his case dismissed. Cody Morelock was accused of damaging the camera system located on...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is cutting illegal immigrants off from getting kickbacks from four major refundable tax credit programs – in a move that could save taxpayers an estimated $3 billion. The Treasury Department and IRS unveiled new rules on Wednesday to tighten the requirements for the adoption, child, American opportunity, and earned income tax credits so that only US citizens, US nationals, and qualified aliens can get them. “Under President Trump, the days of illegal aliens collecting taxpayer-funded benefits are over. The federal law is clear, and Treasury is enforcing it,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a...