Free Republic

Good Monday morning, everyone! The title of this missive is not some signal of defeat, hardly so. However, it is a realization of a ground truth that Texans must accept, or run the risk of being a Colorado or other former red states. It was not too long ago, in November 2024, that we celebrated a resounding political victory here in Texas. Donald Trump increased his margin of victory from 2020 from 6 percent to 15 percent. We also saw 12 of 14 border counties in Texas go for Trump. In the so-called “hotly contested” Texas Senate race, Ted Cruz...

The Los Angeles affiliate of ABC News just reported:https://abc7.com/post/suspect-identified-stabbing-death-cal-fire-captain-rebecca-becky-marodi-san-diego-county/15938236/RAMONA, Calif. (KABC) — Authorities have identified the suspect in the stabbing death of a Cal Fire captain in San Diego County.According to the sheriff’s office, 53-year-old Yolanda Marodi, also known as Yolanda Olenjniczak, is wanted in connection with the death of Rebecca “Becky” Marodi.The suspect, who was married to Marodi for about two years, was sentenced in 2004 to 11 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for fatally stabbing her then-husband, sources told ABC News. Olenjniczak served her time and was released.So that’s even more proof that...

Readers of The Sacramento Bee's coverage of a rally for legislation pitched as protecting girls, women and parental rights at the California statehouse Friday would have no idea someone shot at the house of the volleyball coach who helped inspire the bills and spoke at the rally, or even that San Jose State University fired her for exposing a male on her women's team. The Capitol newspaper's omission of the shot fired through Melissa Batie-Smoose's window Monday while she was at home in a virtual meeting with a lawyer, confirmed by local police Thursday, and her unwilling departure from SJSU...

"Hollywood is dead." - Justine BatemanHollywood is FLEEING Woke Hollywood in Droves, and That's a Good Thing | 15:14Nerdrotic | 1.14M subscribers | 1,245,588 views | November 4, 2024

Eight years ago, Hollywood proudly donned the mantle of anti-Trump resistance.This time around, the industry’s reaction can best be summed up by the tale of two Trump films.Just two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration, Amazon Prime Video made a unexpected announcement — the company would release a documentary about Melania Trump, with the first lady serving as an executive producer.Meanwhile, another Trump-related movie — “The Apprentice” biopic that chronicles the current president’s rise to power decades ago — still has not secured a streaming deal, despite two Oscar nominations for lead actor (Sebastian Stan as Trump) and supporting actor (Jeremy...

Cali's gonna Cali, am I right? In a move that absolutely everyone could have seen coming, Commiefornia is taking their stand against Orange Man Bad by forcing girls to share locker rooms with dudes. The State of California and its public school athletics association has indicated it will not fall in line with President Donald Trump's latest executive order to keep trans athletes out of girls' and women's sports. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) said it will continue to follow the state's law that allows athletes to participate as whichever gender they identify as, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

LIVE: Thousands of anti-ICE protesters block surface streets in downtown Los Angeles

Sometimes, government makes a bad bet. Case in point: the Ivanpah solar project. Maybe you’ve seen the unsightly, blindingly bright towers while traveling from L.A. to Las Vegas, in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada state line. Maybe you’ve read about birds getting fried to death as they fly through the sunlight directed to the tops of the towers by fields of mirrors.

California regulators withdrew a proposal to mandate the sale of zero-emissions trucks over the next 20 years on Tuesday evening. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) pulled back its request to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a waiver that would have allowed the state to require massive increases in sales of electric or zero-emissions truck models over the coming decades. As of 2023, only 0.3% of all registered heavy-duty vehicles in the U.S. were zero-emissions models, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation. CARB’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule would have mandated California’s truck fleet to move to zero-emission...

FRESNO, Calif. — Unusual aerial phenomena have been reported over Fresno in recent days, with one incident involving a confirmed unidentified flying object (UFO) captured on camera. The Mutual UFO Network described the footage as an "interesting find." The sighting occurred early Friday morning when a light was recorded in the sky by a FOX 26 tower camera just after 4 a.m. The light appeared to hover over downtown Fresno. Earl Grey Anderson from the Mutual UFO Network reviewed the footage and said, "Where you see that object move at the clip it moves and it's hovering again. That one...

California Democrat Gavin Newsom continued his undisputed reign as the worst governor in America as deadly wildfires destroy his state. In the latest debacle, Newsom‘s giddy demeanor and bizarre antics ignited speculation that he might be high on drugs, or something worse, after he repeatedly wiggled his shoulders and swayed back-and-forth during a news conference Monday. Shockingly, the failed governor smiled inappropriately several times while speaking about the horrific wildfires. One X user called it a “cocaine-induced shoulder wiggle.”

Los Angeles and surrounding wildfire-hit regions are shielded by a new one-year moratorium on insurance non-renewals, according to California’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, who announced the year-long freeze on Jan. 9.“I am using my moratorium powers to prevent insurance companies from canceling or non-renewing policies in wildfire-impacted areas, so people don’t face the added stress of finding new insurance during this horrific event,” Lara said in a statement.The one-year moratorium on policy non-renewals and cancellations protects residents in and near the ZIP codes affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County, regardless of whether the properties sustained...

Pope Francis named Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego as the archbishop of Washington, D.C., this week, a leader with a reputation for taking a progressive stance on hot-topic issues within the Catholic Church. The Vatican announced on Monday McElroy's appointment as the new archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., to replace the retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory. As McElroy has made headlines over the years with his views on abortion, LGBT rights and immigration, the following pages highlight four things to know about Cardinal McElroy. Supports communion for pro-choice Catholic politicians The election of Democratic President Joe...

See new posts Conversation Karen Bass @KarenBassLA Ted Cruz fleeing Texas in the middle of a deadly crisis is part of a larger pattern of the GOP abandoning folks in crisis. We need to build a movement to kick them all

Mayor Karen Bass stands in a stunned silence for nearly 2 minutes as a reporter asks her if she regrets cutting Los Angeles' Fire Department budget by nearly $20 million and being absent as her citizens' homes burned down.

The National Guard have been called in to help exhausted firefighters battling six separate fires as the apocalyptic skies of Los Angeles continue to fill with smoke. Two new catastrophic blazes broke out late on Wednesday night in the Hollywood Hills and Studio City - forcing first responders to redeploy their already-scarce resources to the hellish, burnt landscape. The latest fires mean huge swathes of iconic southern California real estate from Malibu to Santa Monica, and from Pacific Palisades to Runyon Canyon, are ablaze, impacting millions who were caught off guard by the unprecedented spread and carnage.

Taylor Starling, a high school cross-country runner at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, lost her spot on the varsity team earlier this season to a transgender transfer student. Multiple parents of students at Martin Luther King have told Fox News Digital that the school has allowed the trans athlete to compete on the varsity cross-country team despite missing practices for academic reasons. These parents include Starling's father, longtime firefighter Ryan Starling, and construction subcontractor Dan Slavin, father to Kaitlyn, another runner on the team. "The fact that the male athlete was able to compete while attending less...

Couple allegedly downloaded and dashedA Palo Alto culinary couple stands accused by a popular Bay Area restaurant group of paella piracy and a tapas two-step. Restaurant group Teleféric Barcelona claims in a trade-secrets lawsuit that a husband and wife it hired to help run its operations stole recipes and customer and client data so they could start a rival Spanish eatery called Macarena in Palo Alto. David Linares and Elisabet Reviriego are also accused in the lawsuit of using some of the purportedly purloined information to secure a deal to sell food at San Jose Sharks hockey games. Linares told...

A stark difference between the public and private sectors:In March of 2023 Gavin Newsom promised to deliver 1200 tiny homes at a cost of 625,000 taxpayer dollars apiece. To date, not a single tiny home has been delivered. By comparison, the Amish just built 12 tiny homes in less than 48 hours at a cost of $25,000 apiece. pic.twitter.com/KAWvPASbdi — Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) December 31, 2024As the tweet’s author Kevin Dalton writes, Gavin Newsom announced a “tiny home” project in March of 2023, which was to be completed in a matter of “months” and not “years” — but as you...

Most Californians know that the state does not need 1,200 new laws every year. Fortunately, most governors veto a handful. California Globe contributor Chris Micheli reported that during Governor Newsom’s 6 years in office, between 425 – 1,200 bills were sent to him annually, and he vetoed between 8% – 16.5% of them.