Free Republic

AM BFAOPFWWP, QFH PSIOACFQ SOGSIU YSAOU QWW UWWM — HTBHEQ GFHM QFHDH SDH CWAMC QW JH YADHGWDZU. —KSM UQDRQFHD

Every now and then, though, a 250th-inspired event comes along that feels genuinely thoughtful and delightfully specific. At The Rittenhouse Hotel, that idea takes shape in LiberTea, a new afternoon tea service. The concept is rooted in a lesser-known Revolutionary War tradition: When colonists boycotted British-imported tea from the East India Company, they instead turned to local herbs, spices, and botanicals to create their own blends of “Liberty Teas.” “The Boycott,” a spearmint-based tisane layered with lemon balm, orange, rose hip, and rose petals. “Her Flag” pays homage to Hyperion Tea, which was a popular Liberty Tea. The blend —...

As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce draw global attention around a reported wedding celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York, Costa Rica’s role in the story is not a secret honeymoon, a private estate or a surprise beach visit. It is two baby sloths in Manuel Antonio. There is no confirmed public record of Swift and Kelce visiting Costa Rica together. Their clearest Costa Rica tie appears to be a lighthearted wildlife rescue story from The Sloth Institute, a Manuel Antonio nonprofit that named two orphaned sloths Taylor and Travis after the celebrity couple. The first, a baby two-fingered...

Newly released bodycam footage captures a Florida deputy’s desperate attempt to save the 31-year-old woman fatally mauled by a 12-foot alligator last weekend. The harrowing clip shows the officer running through the brush on Sunday and emerging at the sandy bank of the Econlockhatchee River, where moments earlier Brittany Clark was viciously attacked by a gator while swimming with her boyfriend. Clark and another individual, presumably her boyfriend Chance Allison, are seen under a tarp next to the shoreline.

Democrats are competitive in six key Senate battlegrounds, but Republicans still hold the edge in the fight for the upper chamber, according to new polling from The New York Times and Siena. The New York Times/Siena Polls found Democrats leading the Senate races in North Carolina, where Democrat Roy Cooper is battling Republican Michael Whatley to replace retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and in Maine, where progressive Graham Platner hopes to oust Sen. Susan Collins (R). Cooper boasts the biggest lead among the six battlegrounds surveyed, with 50 percent to Whatley’s 43 percent. Platner, at 49 percent, was up 2...

In 1980, economist Milton Friedman said the National Institutes of Health should be abolished. Friedman said the same about another government research agency, the National Science Foundation. And when he was asked what the NSF should be replaced with, he replied: “Nothing.” Whistleblower documents highlighted in a recent report showed what happens when private billions meet a public agency that can be influenced: Bill Gates’s foundation spent two decades steering the NIH research agenda toward its own priorities — with agency officials as willing partners. The NIH has become a government entity captured by special-interest groups — just as Friedman...

Eva Marie Saint won an Oscar for best supporting actress in her film debut "On the Waterfront (1954)". Her most famous role was perhaps as Eve Kendall, the sultry blonde double agent in the 1959 thriller, "North by Northwest". She was married to Jeffrey Hayden from 1951 in until his death in 2016. She retired in 2021.

Releasing a film about a founding father of the United States during the country’s 250th birthday year is such a slam-dunk idea that it’s a wonder there haven’t been several already. Somehow, “Young Washington,” the latest release from faith-friendly, red state-targeted Angel Studios, has the field all to itself. Luckily, it’s good—not a knockout by any means, but a modern example of the sort of movie that used to be a permanent asset in Hollywood’s studio portfolio: a well-crafted but accessible biopic about the maturation of a person who helped shape the nation’s image of itself. Jon Erwin’s drama is...

President Trump signed 11 pardons Friday, including one for the convicted former business partner of infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a White House official told The Post. Adam Kidan was sentenced to 70 months in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges related to his attempt, along with Abramoff, to purchase SunCruz Casinos for $147.5 million with a counterfeit wire transfer document. Kidan, an entrepreneur, has since gone on to start multiple staffing companies and has become a major Republican donor. The bulk of the pardons are for individuals convicted of tampering with emission control systems on...

The Second Continental Congress voted to approve the U.S. Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Some former colonists — now citizens — could not wait an entire year to celebrate, albeit in a somewhat morbid way. In the summer of 1776, Americans held mock funerals for King George III of Great Britain, their former sovereign whom the Declaration of Independence labeled a tyrant. The mock funerals represented a dramatic change in more ways than one. First, as subjects in the British Empire, American colonists had grown accustomed to celebrating the king’s birthday each year. George III turned 38 years...

Former South Korea men’s national team head coach Hong Myung-bo is said to be taking refuge in the United States upon resigning from his role after a disappointing 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign. Hong and South Korea failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup after coming in third place in Group A behind Mexico and South Africa. Following a strong start to the tournament with a 2-1 victory over Czechia, South Korea lost back-to-back games and was eliminated in the group stage. Hong resigned from his role as head coach soon after, but plenty more controversy...

Went with my brother and a friend today to see "Young Washington" which was released today. I have been looking forward to this movie for some time, and wondered if any other Freepers saw it, and if you liked it. Me? I thought it was great. I am reasonably well read on Washington, and I think he is one of the greatest men who have ever lived. To me, 95% of Americans who know anything about George Washington only know about his activities in the years directly before and after 1775, and this movie ended about ten years before that....

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - For one Nebraska farmer, celebrating the Fourth of July means leaving a message for the world to see from above. Broc Brune has been farming his entire life. Five years ago, he decided to let his soybeans do the talking. “We started out that first year with the Husker block N. And we didn’t know what to expect. And all of a sudden I flew the drone up and it showed up really well. Every year we kind of tried to push the detail a little farther,” Brune said. This year’s design This year, Brune’s 70...

Undersecretary Emil Michael and CEO Dario Amodei went back and forth for months over safety guardrailsz Anthropic overcame its latest spat with the Trump administration Tuesday, but new court documents released in one of its lawsuits against the Pentagon shed light on the underlying tensions between the government and one of America’s hottest AI companies.The documents show in detail the uneasy back-and-forth between Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. The pair are at the center of a landmark fight over appropriate guardrails for the Pentagon’s use of artificial intelligence.The...

You know about the lightbulb and the iPhone. This is the unknown story of another ingenious creation that changed a nation.Over the past 250 years, America has produced the world’s most valuable inventions. The lightbulb. The internet. The telephone and the iPhone. Since the founding of the United States, we have built airplanes, refrigerators and Costco. We dreamed up the microchip and we gave the world chocolate-chip cookies. But the greatest American innovation that you won’t ever find on a list of America’s innovations might just be one that you see every day. It’s an unsung idea that changed a...

The Declaration’s gift of freedom and equality is our duty to preserve. As you may have read, Americans are said to be in a sour mood as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. President Trump is unpopular, real wages are flat, and many on the political left don’t even think July Fourth is the real anniversary. They prefer 1619, the year the first slaves arrived. Yet to our mind the remarkable news of this anniversary is that our free republic has stood for a quarter millennium and prospers still. The nation has faced many stress tests...

stunning air show featuring 2,500 drones transformed the night over North Richland Hills, Texas, with massive images of a rocket, a bald eagle, and George Washington. The patriotic display, created by Sky Elements Drone Shows, gave local families an early look at the celebrations leading up to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Touring a young United States in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at Americans’ boundless appetite for commerce, industry and wealth. “Nothing checks the spirit of enterprise,” the 25-year-old Frenchman later recounted in “Democracy in America.” As to the reason: “I have no doubt that the democratic institutions of the United States…are the cause…of the prodigious commercial activity of the inhabitants.” The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence finds the U.S. the biggest and most dynamic economy in the world and among its richest. As Tocqueville intuited long ago, Americans owe much of that to the democracy the founders built....

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer proudly boasts having the "gayest" parliament in the world. To celebrate Pride Month, Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a reception at 10 Downing Street for LGBTQ+ community leaders. A social media video from the event posted on Tuesday, local time, showed Starmer talking with attendees while a speaker jokingly referred to him as a "lesbian style icon".

MJTruthUltra@MJTruthUltraSomebody asked… so here ya go.Yes, President Trump posted this yesterday… it’s an AI generated image of an 11 Star (not 13) Golden Eagle… with the caption “A Golden Gift to the White House for its 250th Birthday Year!”Also, there is real historical American tradition tied to a plaque looking eagle on the front of the White House..After World War II, homeowners (especially veterans) hung brass or metal eagle plaques above their front doors or garages once they paid off their mortgage. It symbolized being “free from debt” — hence the nickname “freedom flyer.” It was a proud, patriotic way...