Free Republic

Sep 20, 2026 #BrandonGill #JamesTalarico #KenPaxton Republicans launched a new ad attacking Democratic Senate nominee for Texas James Talarico, featuring a much younger face than that of GOP nominee Ken Paxton, who recently drew the mockery of President Donald Trump for the way he looks. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), a rising star in GOP circles, stars in the ad, which goes after Talarico’s past stances on transgender surgeries for China and public safety.

Ever since Benjamin Franklin wielded his fluent French to persuade Parisian elites to support the War of Independence, foreign language knowledge has enabled American diplomats and representatives—not to mention spies—to promote the nation’s interests. During World War II and throughout the Cold War, colleges provided education in languages deemed essential for national defense. Those programs were a great success. In the 1940s, Harvard, Michigan, and Berkeley founded secret schools in Japanese, often led by Japanese-Americans. Other institutions opened foreign language programs thereafter. In the wake of Sputnik in 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act. In recent years, however,...

The Justice Department announced charges this week against 16 individuals in connection with illegal voting, illegal voter registration, and related election-fraud schemes across the country. The charges include unlawful voting by non-citizens in federal elections, false claims of citizenship to register or vote, and related offenses including wire fraud, naturalization fraud, passport fraud, and unlawful firearm purchases uncovered during the course of these investigations. Case details are as follows: Northern District of Texas This week, eight aliens residing in Texas are facing charges for alleged unlawful voting. Moises Anwar Arellano‑Alba, 36, an illegal alien from Mexico, was charged with a...

Defying Iran and heading through the Strait of Hormuz is a gamble. But like all the best gambles, it is a lucrative one, so crews are inclined to fancy their odds. To counter the high insurance costs for buyers, countries such as Iraq and Qatar have been offering crude oil at steep discounts. “People just assume one ship in 12 or one ship in 15 is going to get hit by an Iranian drone, but you make enough money on the rest of them,” said Rory Johnston, founder of the market research firm Commodity Context.

A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice. “Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?” she asked. My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I worked to keep my face neutral, buying a few moments to gather my thoughts. By dismissal time, Najya’s shock had turned to boiling, and the seatbelt had barely clicked before she was confronting me. I had braced myself for this...

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) continues to greatly exaggerate the extent of Russian advances across the frontline to construct a false narrative of Russian battlefield progress for domestic and international audiences... The Russian MoD claimed on September 19 that Russian forces have seized over 5,300 square kilometers and more than 220 settlements in Ukraine since the start of 2026, including over 670 square kilometers and 27 settlements so far in September 2026. ISW has observed evidence to assess that Russian forces have seized only 147.7 square kilometers and 40 settlements, but have lost a net of 20 settlements in...

Germany's AfD was projected to win ​the most votes in ‌the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sunday, ​exit polls showed, but ​the far-right party is ⁠unlikely to govern as ​other parties rule out ​working with it. The exit poll, conducted for public broadcaster ARD, ​showed the AfD ​at 37.0% and the governing centre-right ‌Social ⁠Democrats at 35.5%. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU slumped to 5.5% of the vote, ​its ​worst ⁠result in any state election since ​1949. With the ​threshold ⁠set at 5%, it remained unclear whether the ⁠party ​would secure seats ​in the state parliament.

A federal judge has temporarily barred UC from enforcing parts of its misgendering policy against members of conservative group, finding likely First Amendment violations. The injunction shields members who use pronouns or names assigned at birth when referring to transgender people. The case lands amid intensifying legal battles over transgender rights in California schools.

A conservative comedian perfectly exposed the shallowness of the support for admitted child killer Lindsay Clancy earlier this month with a simple, yet provocative question. As TGP readers know, a mistrial was declared in the Clancy murder trial after one male juror held the line. Clancy killed her three children and admitted to the crime, but the defense argues she is not guilty by reason of insanity. This set off Clancy’s legion of crazed fans, who have become infamous for their public behavior and wild conspiracy theories. They and the liberal media immediately sought to destroy the brave juror who...

For decades, many scientists have confidently dismissed the vast majority of the human DNA as useless evolutionary garbage. Yet a recently published scientific paper in Cell, one of the world’s most prestigious biology journals, declares a “paradigm shift” against the idea that huge portions of the human genome are merely “junk DNA.”After the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, a startling discovery was made. Only about 2 percent of the entire human genome codes for proteins. Scientists naturally asked, what is the other 98 percent doing?Evolutionary biology was ready with an answer. For decades, they had claimed that the...

Have you been to the library lately? I bet you haven’t. I bet, unless you have young kids, you haven’t been there in 10 or 20 years, at a minimum. Why would you go when you have everything they offer available to you at home, either delivered immediately digitally, or the next day physically? … why are we still paying for them?***There are two types of libraries: the small ones in rural communities, and the large ones in major cities. The small ones are cesspools of left-wing propaganda – go to one and look at the children’s book section and...

While the same 'current thing' leftists who spent years on climate, oil and "Palestine" now chants that AI will wipe out the human race, FBI Director Kash Patel just announced that the agency is using the technology to actively prevent mass shootings, including school attacks, before they happen.Patel said artificial intelligence helped the bureau prevent possible school shootings in North Carolina and about half a dozen other states, and that he has increased the FBI's use of AI by 605 percent.That is the version of AI that the pause-and-treaty crowd does not want discussed.? JUST NOW: In a MASSIVE win,...

LINGUISTS TEND to say that all languages are valuable, expressive and complex. They usually attribute negative attitudes to prejudice and politics. That is probably why no one has carefully studied the touchy question of which ones are seen as beautiful or ugly. That is until three scholars—Andrey Anikin, Nikolay Aseyev and Niklas Erben Johansson—published their study of 228 languages last year*. They hit upon the idea of using an online film about the life of Jesus, which its promoters have recorded in hundreds of languages. Crucially, most recordings had at least five different speakers, as the film has both exposition...

The German federal prosecutor’s office recently announced that it indicted seven people for allegedly securing weapons for the Hamas terrorist organization, with the goal of launching terrorist attacks on the second remembrance date of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. The indictment has catapulted the danger of Hamas’ network in Europe to Israeli, American and European installations and citizens into the spotlight. According to the prosecutor’s office, "All of the accused belong to the foreign terrorist organization Hamas. Some time ago, the organization’s military wing (the so-called Qassam Brigades) began establishing weapons depots in Europe. No later than July 2025,...

A group of students at San Pablo, California’s Contra Costa College engaged in a “decapitation” of a Donald Trump piñata, which appeared to be celebrated by one of the school’s counselors. According to Fox News, the X account Libs of TikTok posted video of a person in a blindfold approaching a Trump figurine — donned in a “blue suit, red baseball cap and holding a sign that reads ‘F— ICE'” — and then beheading it. The event reportedly occurred “a few months ago,” but the video surfaced “just last week.” It “appear[ed] to be overseen” by Lorena Gonzalez, currently listed...

Explanation: If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun's position change? A visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at noon near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK. In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age. It is not known if...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched tFalcon 9 launched 27 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:47 p.m. EDT (6:47 p.m. local time; 0147 GMT on Sept. 20). It was a record 40th flight for one of the Falcon 9’s fairing halves. Blastoff! SpaceX launches & deploys 27 Starlink satellites, nails landing | 9:18 VideoFromSpace | 2.14M subscribers | 19,461 views | September 20, 2026

20 September 2026 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time Holy Korean Martyrs' Catholic Church in Baltimore, MarylandReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: A(II).First readingIsaiah 55:6-9My thoughts are not your thoughtsSeek the Lord while he is still to be found,call to him while he is still near.Let the wicked man abandon his way,the evil man his thoughts.Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,to our God who is rich in forgiving;for my thoughts are not your thoughts,my ways not your ways – it is the Lord who speaks.Yes, the heavens are as high above earthas my ways...

Former first lady Michelle Obama’s voter registration and engagement initiative is targeting Generation Z, launching a “Voting Squad” made up of popular content creators and aimed at urging young people to head to the polls. Some of the content creators joining the effort announced Tuesday include Brandon Edelman, who is known as Bran Flakezz on TikTok and boasts more than 1.4 million followers; “plant enthusiast” Paige Tailyn; physician and “medical mythbuster” Joel Bervell; and influencer Leon Ondieki, who’s followed by 4.5 million TikTok users. Cameron Jerrard, J.C. Carter, Wildlin Pierrevil, Justin Frett, Scot Louie, Olive Okoro, Carrie Snipes and Gabriel...

Beloved, Amir Tzarfati is an amazing Jewish believer in Yeshua who holds a pre-tribulation dispensational biblical position. He beautifully and simply explains the Day of Atonement and how it will be fulfilled upon Yeshua's return from the Right hand of the Almighty (Psalm 110:1, Dan. 2:43-44; Dan. 7:13-14, Zech 12:10-14, Matt. 26:64, Mark 14:62)! Maranatha! David