Free Republic

It's said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but what's there to say about a governor who, after two terms, could only make a positive contribution to his state by suffering a retroactive total existence failure? According to outgoing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, his eight years were filled with "signature accomplishments" on the "things that matter most: children and families, economic opportunity, health and safety, and strong local communities." Oh, Tim. Let's set the record straight, shall we? Walz loves to brag about how much he increased spending on this or that program — with results that are questionable...

I wouldn’t have taken a more than average interest in Christopher Columbus if ill-informed and sometimes ill-intentioned people hadn’t made it necessary. Fairfax County, Virginia, where I’ve lived for more than thirty-five years, abolished Columbus Day in 2020 as a paid holiday, but schools are closed today anyway – to celebrate “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” The state legislature did the same for all of Virginia, as have other states, in effect replacing our Western Christian heritage with – frankly – they know not what. Now, Columbus, like all of us, was an imperfect human being. But unlike most of us, he...

President Donald Trump's White House press secretary replacement following Karoline Leavitt's departure, Katie Zacharia, has reportedly scrubbed her Instagram of bikini photos mere days after beginning her role within the Trump administration. The 42-year-old television personality appeared to do so damage control, re-curating her Instagram page to exclude swimsuits photos she initially posted. Days after Zacharia took on her Washington D.C. position it seemed that certain photos on her profile disappeared, with The U.S. Sun previously reporting that the bikini pics that were once on her Instagram page were removed from her account after she accepted the press secretary role....

The U.S. is one of the few western countries where execution remains the punishment for heinous crimes. About sixty percent of the states and the federal government have retained it, but roughly two-thirds of executions since 1976 – when new death penalty laws were affirmed by the Supreme Court – have occurred in six states: Texas, Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Like euthanasia enthusiasts, death penalty abolitionists argue for their cause as a matter of "human rights." I have no use for that sanctimonious bundling. The 1948 Declaration of Human Rights deliberately avoided condemnation of the death penalty, except...

Explosive new details suggest Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs angered a notorious drug lord in jail, sparking a violent clash that resulted in Diddy’s head injury. Diddy reportedly sparked tensions among fellow inmates after an NBC report exposed his allegedly lavish lifestyle behind bars, prompting prison officials to conduct a raid and confiscate inmates’ cell phones, according to TMZ. Infamous Jamaican drug lord and fellow inmate “Dudus” reportedly took matters into his own hands by allegedly physically attacking Combs. NBC reported that Combs was being pampered with massages, access to a cellphone, and premium booze while serving time in Fort Dix. Video...

This video features an in-depth look at the new *Tesla Roadster* by motoring journalist *Henry Catchpole* and *Lars Moravy*, Tesla's Vice President of Vehicle Engineering. The car is described as an extraordinary hypercar that aims to transcend standard electric vehicle performance through unique engineering and aerospace-inspired features. **Key Engineering and Design Features:** * **Powertrain and Performance:** The *Roadster* uses two high-performance motors driving the rear wheels, producing over a megawatt of power and 1400 Nm of torque (2:41-3:13). It features a unique 4680 battery cell design with double-sided cooling for consistent high-performance track driving (3:26-4:03). * **Active Aerodynamics:** The car...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem🇮🇱 (10/16/26)[Prayer]Personalities Psalm 54[a]For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil[b] of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?”1 Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might. 2 Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth. 3 Arrogant foes are attacking me; ruthless people are trying to kill me— people without regard for God.[c] 4 Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. 5 Let evil recoil on those who slander...

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky praised “real leaders” in Europe at a summit in Belgium on Friday, taking a veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump amid testy relations between Kyiv and Washington. European leaders are rallying around Zelensky after the White House heaped pressure on Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil facilities, even as Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continue unabated. After halting strikes on Russian oil refineries for three days at the request of the United States, Zelensky said he would resume those attacks given Russia didn’t adhere to US President Donald Trump’s so-called “energy ceasefire.” Trump,...

President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Thursday he is "not a big fan" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and considers him more difficult to negotiate with than Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticizing Ukraine's decision to resume attacks on Russian oil refineries amid efforts to end the war. "Zelenskyy is not a good guy for us to deal with," Trump said in an exclusive interview on "Finnerty" from the White House. "He doesn't want to settle. He says he wants to settle, but he doesn't. No, I'm not a big fan of Zelenskyy." Ukraine resumed strikes Thursday on Russian oil infrastructure....

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is no longer serving as the Trump administration's special envoy for the Shield of the Americas initiative, a State Department official said Thursday, though she remains involved in the administration's efforts to coordinate security cooperation across the Western Hemisphere. "Kristi Noem's envoy status expired last month and she is no longer in the role," a State Department official told CBS News Thursday. "She is now a senior advisor to Deputy Secretary Landau and continues to work on the Shield of the Americas portfolio." The Shield of the Americas is a coalition made up of...

Probably, you have read about the recent round of riots in France. They began in late September, and are now in their fourth week. This round of riots features mostly students, and the stated bases for the protests certainly appear quite mundane, if not trivial, and certainly out of proportion to the scale and intensity of the riots. What are they so worked up about? They are demanding things like hiring more teachers, repair of dilapidated school buildings, more and better air conditioning and heating, universal school lunches at 1 euro, and so forth. (Here is a list of the...

In late December, two months before the U.S. war with Iran began, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George warned that his service was critically short on missile defense munitions and that the shortage would last another five years, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the matter. (...) his assessment stemmed from the transfer of Patriots to Ukraine after Russia's invasion in 2022, the expenditure of munitions to defend Israel, and the reduced capacity of the defense industrial base. CSIS' estimate said that before the Iran war, the U.S. entered 2026 with roughly 2,300 or so Patriot interceptors and...

Father Also Pleaded Guilty to Felon in Possession of a Firearm A Minneapolis father and son pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to defraud the United States. The father also pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to documents and statements made in court, between June 2022 and October 2024, LaMar Javis Burgess and his son, LaMar Dazjar Burgess, of the Minneapolis area, prepared and filed false federal income tax returns for themselves and others claiming refund amounts they and the other taxpayers were not entitled to receive. The defendants prepared and filed false 2021...

According to a statement released by the Leibniz Center for Archaeology (LEIZA), Aleksandr Diachenko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Detlef Gronenborn of LEIZA and Johannes Gutenberg University evaluated the roles of population size, production capacity, and information exchange in societal changes through pottery. "We developed a mathematical model to describe how the organization and intensity of pottery production can influence the number of decoration styles," said Diachenko. "Additionally, the model reveals how pottery styles evolve through human information exchange and population growth," he explained. The study examined 7,000-year-old pottery from the Linear Pottery culture unearthed in...

The deputy attorney general for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office has been charged with using artificial intelligence to generate child porn, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office in Pennsylvania announced Thursday. Brian Richard Fitzgerald, 51, was charged with multiple felony counts after investigators found that he allegedly used AI to generate child porn and shared the content on social media, according to the DA's office. "No one is above the law, least of all someone entrusted with upholding it," Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said in a statement. "Our office will pursue these cases aggressively and hold offenders...

...Dismantling White Supremacy in Sex Ed”: The Teacher-Training Group Pushing Pronoun Changes Without Parent Permission Teachers rehearse gender lessons and responses to concerned parents in a $325-an-hour virtual classroom ... “Strategies for Dismantling White Supremacy in Sex Ed” “Addressing White Privilege When Teaching Sex Ed” Those are actual offerings on the teacher-training menu at Advocates for Youth, the sex-education organization that partnered with the National Education Association to make its virtual training available to union members....

Freddy, our German tourist friend, and his buddies are getting a unique view of the country as they wend their way through the South. They've hit a variety of big college football games, and were last at the Texas State Fair, where they discovered what you should indulge in at the fair - all the glory of the fried foods. He also got what had to be the biggest hot dog I've ever seen and a mass of fries that was definitely close to violating the old maxim my father used to say, "Never eat anything bigger than your head."...

From Wikimedia Commons: Battle between Christians and Muslims (Jacques Courtois, second half of 17th century). Numbers matter. Large-scale importation of Muslim population groups from African and Asian countries into the United States has produced measurable corrosion of community trust and informal bonds that sustain civil society. Concentrated demographic shifts—conspicuous in places such as Dearborn, Michigan—have generated institutional favoritism, constrained public discourse, and fostered parallel moral frameworks that resist the shared civic identity historically required for social cohesion. Far from being incidental byproducts of pluralism, these developments represent a structural challenge to the very cultural preconditions of American self-government. Dearborn furnishes...

On Monday, August 24th, 2026, an deputy of the Eagle County Sheriffs Department shot and stopped a charging cinnamon color phase black bear near the River Run Apartment Complex. The bear was an adult with two cubs.From the video, it appears the deputy drew and fired the first shot in less than a second, with three followup shots following in fractions of a second after that. The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office released the body camera video on September 8th, 2026The video shows officers dealing with a difficult situation: An adult bear with two cubs and dozens of onlookers, was very...

President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Thursday he has information about Hillary Clinton and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that could be used against them, raising the possibility of pursuing his political adversaries if Democrats regain control of Congress and attempt to impeach him for a third time. In an exclusive interview on "Finnerty," Trump said he previously declined opportunities to pursue criminal investigations of Clinton, his 2016 presidential opponent, but suggested that another impeachment effort could change the situation. "I could have done numbers in Hillary Clinton. I could have done numbers in Bill Clinton. I do...