Free Republic

What would Karl Marx think of his latter-day disciples in the Democratic Socialists of America? No doubt he would find their politics largely agreeable, but they would present him with a class conundrum. DSA is not a movement of workers but of people with intellectual credentials: some 80 percent of its members have college degrees and 35 percent have advanced degrees. Those credentials are all granted by the institutions that capitalists sustain – it’s not bricklayers who endow Harvard University. State colleges and universities depend on government funding, but government itself, under capitalism, is simply an instrument of business interests....

The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack. The U.S. defense official said the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The NATO official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. In the...

The Irish Rovers sang about the biggest mixup that you have ever seen: he was christened David Anthony, but still in spite of that, his father called him William while his mother called him Pat. Picture the feelings of Lake Ontario this morning. It was christened Lac Saint-Louis by Samuel de Champlain, but it’s woken up to Canada calling it William and the US calling it Pat – or rather, Lake America (without the “of,” as Trump helpfully specified in his video on Truth Social). Although Lac Saint-Louis is surely a better and more historically founded name than Lake America,...

Artificial intelligence spending is racing toward levels once considered unimaginable. Yet 250 years of market history suggest the boom may have considerably further to run before financing pressure, higher rates or an outside shock finally brings it down. AI Spending Has Entered a New PhaseThe artificial intelligence boom began as a technology story. It has evolved into one of the largest capital investment cycles in modern history.Since 2024, companies have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into semiconductors, power infrastructure, data-center construction and networking equipment. Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are expected to spend roughly $700 billion on capital...

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s recent appearance with President Donald Trump at his county’s police academy — with uniformed cadets and officers sitting behind them — amounted to an improper partisan political rally, Democrats allege in a formal complaint expected to be filed Friday with the state Board of Elections. The Aug. 14 event featured Republican candidates for Congress from around the state. Several spoke from the rostrum, denouncing Democratic officeholders. Blakeman, who is also running for governor, attacked state policies and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul during his speech. Trump took the stage and praised his host after discussing new...

A surrogate mother refused to abort a baby diagnosed with a heart condition despite contractual pressure from the intended parentsLegal experts confirm that contracts cannot force someone to terminate a pregnancy, as such agreements violate fundamental human rights and bodily autonomy principlesThe case highlights the moral limitations of surrogacy contracts and affirms that the sanctity of life supersedes written agreementsIn a powerful defense of life, a surrogate mother stood firm in her refusal to abort an unborn child despite demands from the intended parents. The baby had been diagnosed with a heart condition, but the surrogate recognized what many Americans...

War is never a picnic, and the American Civil War became the deadliest war in US history. What everyone thought would end in a matter of weeks became a four-year battle between the Union and the Confederacy. The amount of supplies and rations needed was sometimes underestimated because the war dragged on, and soldiers on both sides had to get creative with their meals. Soldiers during the Civil War were used to having their meals cooked for them, so it was a steep learning curve out on the battlefield and with sparse ingredients. The rations were technically edible but not...

A 24-year-old repeat criminal living in Minneapolis has been charged after stealing an American flag from a medical office building in Edina, attaching it to his vehicle and dragging it down the street on Wednesday. If that wasn’t crazy enough, the man returned the same afternoon to shred the flag after bystanders chased him off and recovered it. Mahamud Hassan Mahamed was booked on a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree damage to property.

HEADLINES: Dolly Parton, Tim Curry dead; Nepal disaster caused by a glacier breakup; DemoKKKrat Piker Panic; Liberals' war on beauty The News of Today is the History of Tomorrow

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ The Freeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents: ~ Your Choice ~ *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time...

Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-described libertarian and professional internet troll who became known for his controversial right-wing political views, is in ICE custody. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News that ICE arrested Yiannopoulos, a United Kingdom national, on Thursday at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, Louisiana.

“On August 23, 2026, a video titled "Where to Kill Barron Trump" was posted by Tebyan.net (Iran) presenting operational guidance for assassinating Barron Trump, son of President Donald Trump, presumably as a result of "unprecedented infiltration, through a girl who had sat for a 58 minute private meeting with Barron Trump, bypassing Secret Service Protocols. The video discussed his university, his security arrangements, and ways would-be assassins could infiltrate the student body and recruiting members of his social circle. The video suggested infiltrating Barron Trump's social circle by using platforms with "low digital security" such as social media and gaming...

Grass roots opposition to data centers has spread rapidly. Why? In part, at least, because it is funded by the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese view artificial intelligence as the great arms race of our time, and they are determined to surpass the United States in what may prove to be the most important battleground of the 21st century. Given the technological expertise the Chinese have attained and the human capital in their population, that goal may well be achievable. For many years, the USSR subsidized the environmental movement in the U.S. Why? To suppress American production of oil and...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Mutsaerts: The Church Will Not Be Saved by Bureaucrats Who Think Everything Must Change There is a peculiar mistake common among modern people: when they discover that the Church is full of sinners, they conclude that Christianity has failed. This is rather like discovering that a hospital is full of sick people and concluding that medicine does not work.The Church has never claimed to be an association of perfect people. She has claimed something far stranger: that God has decided to entrust His perfect truth to extraordinarily imperfect people. Those who find this implausible should look at...

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. has entered an agreement with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of the South American country’s oil reserves. Trump in a social media post announced the agreement he said was negotiated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez. “The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY!” Trump wrote.

[Catholic Caucus] Liturgy Wars—The Latest Volley: A Papal “Thus”The drafters of Pope Leo XIV’s Wednesday catechesis did not serve him well, accomplished liturgical scholar contendsIn recent months a number of prominent attempts have been made to double down on the party line that the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council conforms to the Council’s own desires and is beyond criticism, and that the older liturgical rites have little, if any, place in the life of the Church.One only need recall three recent examples: Cardinal Arthur Roche’s July 29 interview with The Tablet; the subsequent article in the secular Spanish...

It’s all about how and where. It seems that everyone is talking about data centers these days; they’ve taken over the Internet with memes and conspiracy theories. As a computer professor, I decided to apply an academic research regimen to the situation and cut through the exaggeration and emotion that often accompany these current polarizing issues. Two important points to begin with: AI’s water and power usage. As I have demonstrated in my previous article, data centers use about 0.02% of the water supply in the US according to recent sources, and most future data centers are already planned to...

President Trump’s return to office was made possible in part because of increasing support from three traditionally Democratic groups: Hispanic voters (41% supported Trump, a 6-point improvement from 2020), young voters (46%, up 10 points) and Black voters (15%, up 7 points). There isn’t much evidence that Democrats have figured out how to talk to these voters again, but for two of the three groups, Trump’s declining approval rating is doing the job for them. In a recent Marquette survey, two-thirds of young Americans said they disapproved of Trump, and 56% said they would support the Democratic candidate in their...

Leslie Poles Hartley famously dubbed the past “a foreign country.” This summer, for the first time, I sensed that the present can be one too. My annual visit to the land of my childhood and youth exposed me to a culture very different from the one that nurtured me. Growing up as a grammar schoolboy in 1970s and ’80s England, I absorbed the importance of personal restraint; emotional self-control in public; privacy; acting with honesty and fairness, even to one’s own hurt; and respecting others regardless of their social status or opinions. At the level of society, such personal values...

The United States of America has just entered into an Agreement with the Country of Venezuela on, THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY! At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer." "This Historic Transaction MORE THAN DOUBLES American Oil Reserves, greatly increases our Oil Supply, and will substantially lower Gas Prices...