Free Republic

In his latest appearance on Fox News, Sen. John Fetterman called New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a “clown” for saying he might have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he comes to the city. Fetterman, a staunch Israel supporter who appeared on “Hannity” Wednesday night, mocked Mamdani for threatening to order Netanyahu’s arrest on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court but then backtracking earlier this week while admitting the city would not have the authority to do so. “So, sit down. You know you’re a clown,” Fetterman said, directing his comments to Mamdani. “You’re just going...

It’s been a tough week for Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico on the sexual abuse front, who is now battling with the public learning that his largest financial backer is listed in the Epstein files, is facing condemnation from an abuse victim’s family for lying, and is refusing to condemn a political ally who consorts with a sexual predator. Earlier today, it was revealed that Talarico had been receiving millions from billionaire Epstein-associated Reid Hoffman. Hoffman was featured prominently in the Epstein files for making trips to Jeffrey Epstein’s island and to other Epstein residences, as well as exchanging...

Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao took to social media to report no one from the U.S. Navy’s elite Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron will be reprimanded after a low-altitude pass went viral in Florida on Wednesday. “Flight debrief complete. No reprimands. No firings. No problem. That’s the sound of Freedom! Semper fi and Hooyah,” Cao said in a social media post that included a brief video clip of the jet zooming over the beach. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is encouraging low-altitude military flyovers. The video shows the Blue Angels flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola...

President Donald Trump Wednesday pledged a new, federally-led crackdown against foreign truck drivers who do not have a clean immigration status. “My administration will soon take historic action to get illegal alien truck drivers who are just killing a lot of people (off the road),” Trump said. “They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol and they shouldn’t be driving these things. And they’re, they came in totally illegally. We don’t want them.” According to recent media reports, there are well over 100,000 undocumented persons working as paid truck drivers across the nation. Trump made his...

A planned fight between two women prompted a Tuesday night shooting in Dauphin County that ended in a high-speed chase and collision with a police car, according to court records. Mya Elias, 22, agreed to fight a woman after a Facebook dispute escalated into a fiery exchange of messages on Facebook Messenger. Elias posted screenshots of the messages on her Facebook page Tuesday afternoon, saying the woman had “harassed me twice over (her) bd.” The initials stand for baby’s dad. The woman then posted about the dispute on her Facebook page and provided Elias’ address to commenters. That’s when Elias...

In Virginia Lee Burton's classic 1939 children's book "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel," Mulligan often boasted that his steam shovel, Mary Anne, "could dig as much in a day as a hundred men could dig in a week, but he had never been quite sure that this was true." By the end of the story, Mulligan never gets the chance to prove his boast because electric, diesel and gasoline shovels have taken away nearly all of Mary Anne's work. Still, he finds an ingenious way for the old steam shovel to remain useful. When Burton wrote those words, she...

SPRING BROOK TWP. — In the wake of a fiery Schuylkill County crash that killed a Pennsylvania state trooper this month, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.) reiterated his support for a proposed law aimed at preventing people in the country illegally from obtaining commercial driver’s licenses. Michael Bon, 33, of Brockton, Massachusetts, faces felony vehicular homicide and other charges after his tractor-trailer veered off Interstate 81 early on July 1 and caused the crash that killed Trooper Michael Pahira. Pahira, a 20-year state police veteran, was conducting a routine commercial inspection in Cass Twp. Bon, who was issued a CDL...

The Graham Platner scandal in Maine goes beyond the Nazi tattoo, the rape fantasies, the allegations of domestic abuse, and Jenny Racicot’s rape claim, which ended his campaign. Now, the Democratic Socialists of America are urging their candidates to never work with Morris Katz, Platner’s top aide, or his firm in future elections. Katz isn’t a DSA member, but the drama surrounding Graham Platner's inevitable downfall won’t end when he files his paperwork to quit before the July 13 deadline, something Katz says he will do despite delays on the matter (via The Intercept). Members of the Democratic Socialists of...

A mother who was vacationing at a Minnesota lake is accused of trying to kill her daughter after the two argued over a cell phone. Court documents obtained by Law & Crime allege Jasmine Marie Laws, 35, of Baltimore, threw her 15-year-old daughter’s phone into a lake in Otter Tail County, Minnesota. The daughter went into the water to get the phone, and when she retrieved it, she got into an argument with Laws. Laws allegedly struck the daughter first, with the daughter allegedly retaliating by grabbing Laws’ hair. The two continued to fight, and Laws allegedly put the daughter...

Trooper Michael Pahira Jr. was killed Wednesday while conducting safety inspections on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County. Michael Bon, 33, is facing charges of homicide by vehicle and related offenses in connection with Pahira’s death. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Bon is in the U.S. illegally from Haiti and holds a commercial driver’s license from Massachusetts. The department said Bon was admitted into the U.S. as a parolee in 2024 and filed an application for temporary protected status, but it was never granted. In 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued Bon a notice of termination of parole,...

Hours after Buffalo officials raised a foreign flag over U.S. soil to commemorate Somali independence, an unknown individual jumped into action and removed it. A report from Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan claims that “vandals broke the [flag pole] access panel, cut the cable and removed the Somali flag during the overnight hours.” Ryan has set the Buffalo Police Department onto the case to find and prosecute the “vandals,” claiming that his city is “diverse” and “committed to honoring and celebrating the many cultures that make [Buffalo] stronger.” If you believed that might include a celebration for American independence, you would...

The Minnesota Board of Pardons on June 10 pardoned a man convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl, according to a New York Times report. The three-person state board, which includes Gov. Tim Walz, pardoned Tou Lue Vang, from Laos, a week before he was set to be deported. Vang was convicted in 2005. Vang had pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual conduct in a plea deal that prevented him from serving prison time, the NYTimes reported. The pardon means that Vang can now fight the deportation. NEW: DHS is accusing MN Gov. Tim Walz of trying to shield a Laotian illegal...

A state lawmaker was booted from the House floor after declining to remove his American flag-themed jacket. Such sartorial conflicts, believe it or not, have a long history in Harrisburg. Rep. Eric Davanzo, R-Westmoreland County, was seen roaming the Capitol on Tuesday wearing a red-and-white-striped blazer and a blue tie with white stars — a motif that he said was to commemorate the upcoming Fourth of July holiday and the nation’s 250th anniversary. But after entering the House chamber, Davanzo said he was told by a security staffer that “the Speaker is going to ask you to leave or take...

I used to love New York City. You could go there and walk around, unmolested, and enjoy the sights and sounds the city had to offer. Now, the aroma of urine and weed permeates the streets like a poorly ventilated cigar bar on its busiest night. There is no real punishment for crimes short of murder. Walk into a Duane Reade, a pharmacy and convenience store chain owned by Walgreens up there, and you will see less security than in a bank. As leftists insist, “People need to steal to feed their families,” you can’t help but notice that the...

After Gov. Josh Shapiro said Pennsylvania would not participate in President Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair, the state’s two U.S. senators have announced that the Keystone State will be represented. Sens. Dave McCormick, a Republican, and John Fetterman, a Democrat, said in a joint statement on Saturday that they struck agreements with several Pennsylvania groups to give the state a “strong presence” at the fair on the National Mall and a “showcase worthy of its singular place in our nation’s history.” The senators said they were coordinating the effort with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins with the involvement...

Two ceremonial flags were filched from a Northampton Township community flagpole on Wednesday night. Palmer Township police are searching for the person who stole Juneteenth and LGBTQ Pride flags from a flagpole outside the Easton Area Public Library Palmer branch overnight Wednesday. Surveillance footage captured an individual lowering the two flags and fleeing the scene. Police said the thief deliberately concealed their identity. “This was not just vandalism; it was an attack on our shared civic space. The township condemns this theft in the strongest terms,” it shared in a news release. The flags had been raised during a ceremony...

YORK, Pa. — The York Revolution announced it has canceled its scheduled Thursday game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs after several players refused to wear the team's planned Pride Night jerseys. In a statement issued late Wednesday, the club said the decision was made with “great disappointment” and that tickets for the June 18 game will be treated as a rainout and may be redeemed for any future 2026 regular-season home game, subject to availability. "Unfortunately, several of our players have refused to wear the scheduled Pride Night jersey and the club decided that hosting the event is more...

Karmelo Anthony—his first name sounds like some off-brand 99 Cent Store nougat confection—is going to prison for 35 years, and he is relatively lucky. He is lucky he does not live in a society that treats monsters appropriately. A civilized society does not tolerate his brand of sociopathy. It executes such criminals—not only as righteous retribution and not only as an example to others, but as an act of societal hygiene. For a millennium, Europe hanged, beheaded, or otherwise dispatched about 1 percent of its male population every year for various crimes, and you know what? After a while, there...

HARRISBURG — Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, states have become the primary battlegrounds for fights over expanding or restricting access to abortion. This November, Pennsylvania voters will choose between candidates for governor who have radically different positions on what the commonwealth should do. Pregnancies can be ended in Pennsylvania up to 24 weeks gestation, a deadline tied to the concept of viability that was introduced in Roe. Abortions can be performed after that cutoff if a pregnant person’s life or health is in danger. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is a vocal supporter of...

BALTIMORE — Video captured the arrests of two people Thursday by federal immigration agents outside a school in Southeast Baltimore. The arrests were recorded by bystanders on video that some may consider disturbing. The video shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents trying to put a man in handcuffs in the parking lot of a building on Fait Avenue that's currently being used as a temporary home for Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School. WBAL-TV 11 News reached out to ICE for comment about this incident and received a response shortly after 9 p.m. from Acting Assistant ICE Secretary Lauren Bis,...