Free Republic

Imagine for a nanosecond the histrionic reaction, if a pro-Palestinian activist, decked out in pro-Hamas gear or wrapped in a Palestinian flag, were arrested for peacefully standing too close to a Jewish temple. Oh, the humanity! From congressional Democrats to the lapdogs of the left-wing media, the uproar would be deafening — not to mention the oodles of vile, antisemitic posts on social media. Yet, in no-longer-jolly old England, a Jewish lawyer was recently arrested for allegedly "antagonizing" a group of pro-Palestinian protesters. The lawyer's crime? He was wearing a Star of David necklace. That, gang, was an actual slap...

Is Mamdani not a product of America? Everything about him I recognize as part of our society. I don’t celebrate it, but I don’t deny it. He grew up and mastered a system created by our brahmin class. He was nurtured in a family that was ensconced in the elite university system that holds sway in our country. He went to Bowdoin College, an exclusive, expensive retreat for the children of the well-off. He majored in African studies, as his father had, but he was not destined for the confines of a university library his whole life. He knew that...

It’s too good. It’s beyond comical. For the past week or so, liberal America has been apoplectic over President Trump’s new addition to the White House. He’s renovating the East Room so that a proper ballroom can be on the grounds, a venue that can accommodate at least 650 people. The president of the United States will forever have a place for official state dinners and other events—no more tents on the lawn. And yet, you’d think Trump ordered a slash-and-burn of the entire residence. Other presidents have done this—it’s not a big deal. The project is being funded by...

A wacky ex-Democrat politician suffered a terrifying attack earlier this week in Massachusetts while at his place of employment.

I've had a rough few days and have emerged from a cloud of medication to a barrage of intemperate emails from British readers demanding to know what I make of Jews being killed on the streets of Manchester, Jews being forbidden from attending footie matches in Birmingham, and Jews being arrested and interrogated for ten hours for perambulating the streets of London while wearing visible marks of their faith.Well, obviously, I'm shocked, shocked to find Jew-hate going on at Rick's Café Keffiyeh. But I'm not in the least bit shocked, shocked to find that yet again the public discourse in...

Zohran Mamdani made news a few weeks ago when he announced that he planned to do away with the city's gifted and talented program for kids, at least the part of it that started in kindergarten. Not surprisingly, Mamdani's positions on education seem to align with the rest of his far-left views, which means that he's generally against sorting students by ability and doesn't like standardized tests that are used for admissions in the city's top schools. This is true even though Mamdani himself attended one of these eight schools, the elite Bronx High School of Science. What I hadn't...

President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is endorsing Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein to challenge Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie. Trump has repeatedly criticized Massie in recent months, issuing a warning that he and his team would primary the Republican representative. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump called Massie a “Third Rate Congressman” and a “Weak and Pathetic RINO,” stating he must be “thrown out of office, ASAP” before announcing his endorsement of Gallrein. “The incredible people of Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District gave us a mandate to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and the person that will help us do...

There was a TON going on Wednesday night. A ton. Maybe it's because the government's been shut down for two weeks now, and the politicians are all getting a little antsy? Maybe it was a full moon? Regardless, there were, like, four town halls, including one on CNN with Bernie Sanders and AOC, and another on News Nation with … Stephen A. Smith. I mean, could you imagine a worse way to spend a night than by flipping back and forth between those two primetime specials? My God. I'd literally rather sit through ‘Green Lantern’ on a loop, and I...

Climate activist describes beatings, threats, dehydration, and deliberate humiliation during detention following Global Sumud Flotilla’s attempt to deliver aid to Gaza, saying Swedish Foreign Ministry failed to act 'What we have been through is only a small part of what Palestinians have experienced,' Greta Thunberg tells Swedish daily Aftonbladet Famed Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has recounted the five harrowing days she spent in Israeli custody earlier this month following the attempt by a humanitarian flotilla to deliver aid to Gaza, according to local media. Describing Israeli forces “beating, kicking, and threats of being gassed in cages,” the climate activist shared...

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has vowed to prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a post-Trump era. Pritzker made the comments during an interview with FOX 32 Chicago this week as ICE agents step up their efforts across the city of Chicago. “The tables will turn one day,” Prtizker explained. ”These people should recognize that maybe they’re not gonna get prosecuted today, although we’re looking at doing that, but they may get prosecuted after the Trump administration because the statute of limitations would not have run out.” The 60-year-old added that he had spoken with Illinois Attorney General Kwame...

Morality isn’t made by committee.The latest sermon from HuffPost’s pulpit insists that “vertical morality” explains why MAGA Christians seem so unchristian. The author, in her infinite wisdom, claims that obedience to God makes people cruel, authoritarian, and conveniently Republican. In other words, faith with a backbone is now a threat to democracy.Let me start by asking a rather important question: if morality doesn’t descend from above, where exactly does it come from? From X polls? From whatever influencer cries loudest on TikTok? The article paints “vertical morality” as a primitive hangover from patriarchy — a moral monarchy that demands...

Zohran Mamdani is on track to become New York City’s next mayor. That’s bad for your interests, even if you don’t live, work, or spend time in the rotting Big Apple.Manhattan’s financial sector is the beating heart of the American economy. Every day, trillions of dollars course through Wall Street, making NYC the nation’s indispensable financial engine. It is not just a local hub but a national artery, driving investment, credit, and economic activity across the country.Decisions made in New York City ripple outward to affect retirement accounts in Ohio, mortgage rates in Florida, and small business loans in Texas.Now...

Layoffs of federal employees officially began Friday as the U.S. government shutdown entered another tense phase, according to Trump administration budget chief Russell Vought, who confirmed the sweeping reductions in a social media post. “The RIFs have begun,” Vought announced on X, using the acronym for “Reductions in Force.” The Gateway Pundit reported last week that President Donald Trump met with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, a key architect of the Project 2025 blueprint, to determine which federal agencies, deemed by Trump as “political SCAM Democrat Agencies,” should face cuts and whether those cuts will be temporary...

MAGA commentators are stepping up as soldiers in Trump’s culture war to provoke confrontations against “Antifa” with the backing of DHS.TWO WEEKS AGO, THE X ACCOUNT for the Department of Homeland Security was being, all things considered, relatively normal.There was a repost of a video about law enforcement at the Charlie Kirk memorial, a video on how the Secret Service had dismantled a digital network that could have carried out attacks near the United Nations General Assembly, a video of part of Trump’s tone-deaf, chest-beating speech at the U.N., and posts and news updates on the Dallas ICE field office...

Contrary to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claim, most of the Obamacare subsidies are not expiring, for good or for ill.Into the debate on extending the Biden administration’s Covid subsidies for health coverage stepped Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. In an X post Monday evening, Greene claimed that “when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district.” She went on to repeat the claim that premiums would “DOUBLE” — with all caps in the original — two other times in...

With its popularity in the United States crashing, Israel is bankrolling what organizers say will be the largest campaign of its kind to bolster support among evangelical churches, until recently seen as an unshakable base of support for the Jewish state. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has hired an American firm to run the campaign, with plans to spend as much as $4.1 million on marketing aimed at Christians across the Western part of the country, according to newly filed federal disclosures. The documents, filed last week under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, reveal that Show Faith by Works, LLC will execute...

A Dominican priest in Chicago who said he’d spent the day helping a young U.S. citizen who’d been beaten by ICE agents after he was “detained for walking on his own sidewalk on his way to his home” posted some video of tear gas. “America,” he wrote, “we are better than this.” The irony is that a lot of us have spent our lives convinced that we really were better than this, and now Donald Trump seems hell-bent on proving us wrong. He has declared war on some U.S. cities, where our military is, according to him, supposed to train...

I must admit that, despite having been raised in a secular home and limiting my Jewish observance to attending services when I can, I do have one pretty strong theory about the Judeo-Christian faith: The rules come from God, and we follow them. It’s a one-way street. And while some rules are no longer observed (e.g., we don’t kill witches and, outside of Muslim countries, no one’s stoning homosexuals to death), we don’t get to go around telling God to do a complete U-turn on morals. However, an article in The Nation, a hard-left publication, earnestly explains how queer Catholics...

The threat against our shared reality.A time existed when you could turn to a library, a newspaper, or a news network and be fairly confident the information you received was factual. Seeing used to be believing. Photos, videos, recordings, and other sources validated information. Those days are gone. Mis- and disinformation run rampant through digital spaces, creating branching narratives that emerge from algorithmic bubbles and infiltrate the real world. And now that the technology to generate spurious video and audio with AI is accessible and quickly improving, the difference between real and fake is becoming harder to discern. Fact and...

With each passing day it becomes more obvious that the left has become incapable of rational debate or political compromise, and must now embrace the only tools available to it: intimidation, coercion, and political violence. Whatever liberals might believe about their progressive politics, today their program is based not on persuasion or representation, still less on open-minded rational inquiry or practical solutions to problems. It’s based on force.The assassination of Charlie Kirk last month is of course emblematic of what the left has become. Kirk was murdered for speaking out against transgenderism. Dissenting from that ideology in particular is intolerable...