Free Republic

An immigration judge has ordered the deportation of a former New York City Council employee federal officials said in January was an undocumented immigrant with a prior assault arrest. City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced the deportation ruling on Wednesday, condemning it as a "miscarriage of justice and wholly deplorable" and pledging to fight back by filing an appeal. Two months ago, Rafael Andres Rubio Bohorquez, 53, was detained during an immigration appointment and was identified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a Venezuelan "criminal illegal alien" who overstayed his visa. Federal officials said despite having no work...

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is little more than an "empty entity" who is not at the helm of the regime, according to Israeli national security sources. The son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Feb. 28, is also linked to what officials describe as a "misfunctioning" regime. "The new leader is an empty entity," Kobi Michael, a defense analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital. "Mojtaba Khamenei does not appear in public, but we also have reliable information that he does not...

Iranian leaders call the US the “Great Satan” and burn effigies of President Donald Trump in the streets — but that doesn’t stop them sending their kids over here to learn. Children of regime leaders and bigwigs are at prestigious universities across the US, including University of Massachusetts, New York’s Union College and George Washington University, The Post can reveal. Sources said allowing people linked to the regime to assume such influential positions could present a threat to US values. “I would think that there would be a security risk as Iranian academics have been critical in forming public opinion...

State leaders have announced that sport fishing for salmon will reopen on the Central Coast starting April 11, with commercial fishing set to begin the following month, marking a significant moment for commercial fishermen who have been unable to fish for salmon since 2022. "It's the news that everybody's been waiting for," said Blake Anderson, Santa Cruz Harbormaster, expressing the anticipation surrounding the reopening of salmon season. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that recreational fishing will commence on April 11, while commercial fishing is scheduled to kick off in May. The Santa Cruz Harbor is preparing for...

Whoopi Goldberg cheerfully confessed she bar hops as a way to fulfill her sexual needs. On Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” Goldberg noted, “A woman wrote an article in Cosmopolitan, admitting that she fantasizes about being single even though she’s in a very happy longterm relationship.” “She writes that sometimes, she finds herself missing the days of casual flings and bar-hopping,” Goldberg continued as the audience giggled. The “Ghost” actress then turned to her co-hosts for a reaction, to which Joy Behar responded, “Do you miss those days?” Goldberg quipped, “I am single,” adding, “Yeah, I bar hop, I go...

A new report says Ireland’s economic model is in urgent need of reform to sustain high living standards. The study, by University of Galway Professor Alan Ahearne, said Ireland has some of the highest productivity rates in world, but this is being driven by foreign multinationals, not domestic firms. The research was funded by Irish brothers, John and Patrick Collison, who founded global payments company Stripe, which is valued at more than €135 billion. […] Mr. Ahearne’s study said over the past 50 years, real income per person, adjusted for inflation, had tripled, rising from about €17,500 in 1970 to...

As Havana quietly opens talks with Washington amid deepening shortages and unrest, Brussels sticks to a long-failed policy of dialogue. General view of a street in Havana on March 16, 2026. YAMIL LAGE / AFP Cuba is edging toward a breaking point—and, for the first time in years, even its leadership seems to know it. After months of rolling blackouts, empty shelves, and growing street protests, Havana has quietly opened talks with Donald Trump’s administration. The goal is simple: ease the crushing economic pressure without loosening its grip on power. Whether that balancing act is still possible is another question....

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – A Fountain woman was arrested on Tuesday for the alleged murder of her boyfriend. 38-year-old Joseph Eiler was last seen alive early Thursday morning after he had a fight with his girlfriend, Ashley Averett. Saturday, Eiler’s dad and Averett reported him missing. During an initial interview with Averett on Monday, investigators reported that Averett said Joseph had left the home with an unknown friend after their argument on Thursday. Bay County Sheriff’s investigators say there were red flags from the beginning. For instance, Eiler had just started working at a local car dealership. “Seemed...

The Belgian capital commemorates the 2016 terrorist attack with testimonies from survivors and warnings about the challenges that remain unresolved a decade later. A man lights a candle as tribute to the victims of the Brussels terror attacks, in Trafalgar Square in central London on March 24, 2016. JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP.Ten years after jihadist bombings tore through Brussels, killing 32 people and injuring hundreds, survivors and officials gathered near Maelbeek station to mark an anniversary that remains unresolved for many of those who lived through it. The tribute took place just metres from the metro stop where one of...

The Western European NATO allies of the United States appear to be celebrating what they mistakenly believe is the discomfort the Americans and Israelis are now encountering in the Iran war. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has unctuously announced that this war is not a NATO responsibility since NATO is a defensive alliance. He has at least had the decency to recognise that “The United States and Israel are doing the world’s dirty work for it.” President Trump has made it clear that he does not need the assistance of any other country in clearing the Hormuz Strait, but he considers...

ZME Science reports that Shlomi Katzin of the University of Haifa discovered a three-foot-long Crusader-era sword encrusted with shells and sand while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel’s Dor Beach. The Israel Antiquities Authority soon granted permission to recover the object from the seabed and transfer it to the University of Haifa. A CT scan at a nearby hospital revealed that the sword’s iron blade is severely corroded, yet enough of it survives to indicate that it was likely forged in Europe and belonged to a Frankish knight. “Swords were precious objects, and therefore were carefully cared for and...

DEAD MEN'S DUST. You don't buy poetry. (Neither do I.) Why? You cannot afford it? Bosh! you spend Editions de luxe on a thirsty friend. You can buy any one of the poetry bunch For the price you pay for a business lunch. Don't you suppose that a hungry head, Like an empty stomach, ought to be fed? Looking into myself, I find this true, So I hardly can figure it false in you.

Engineering school taught us to write code. It never taught us to write. Now writing is the whole job. I went to engineering school at the University of Virginia. I appreciated the education. The engineering program is rigorous. I learned differential equations, thermodynamics, signal processing, data structures, and enough physics to respect what I didn’t understand. (And, I barely made it through.) I now wish I had majored in English if you’d told me that thirty years ago, I would have laughed at you, and then gone back to failing an electromagnetics exam. You know what I didn’t learn? How...

Burn Notice @burnedspy360·14h NATO is not what you think, and Trump is exposing it all. The intelligence units in NATO countries were set up by Hitler's Spy, Reinhard Gehlen, around when he created the CIA. NATO was a "terror club", established on a “war-industrial base”: https://prussiagate.substack.com/p/council-of-the-gods-part-v

ransomnote: Below are several of John A Konrad V's detailed posts. There are another 14 posts in this thread series at the link which I did not copy.Here's the source of the x.com thread posts below:DataRepublican (small r) repostedJohn Ʌ Konrad V@johnkonradLet's unpack this..What if the White House has no intention of reopening the Strait of Hormuz?What if this war is really about ships & tariffs?I had a long discussion with senior DOE official yesterday on background. I can’t share any details but it’s clear everyone’s Strait of Hormuz calculus is wrong.We need to go back to the drawing boards.That's...

ransomnote: Video quality is much better at the link. I broke it in two parts for the clips below.Joshua Reid | Redpills.tv@realjoshuareid·4hWhite House through history.3/18/2026

Afroman, once world famous for his song about being high (though I always preferred "Crazy Rap" myself), has emerged as a new kind of internet folk hero in the aftermath of an incident in 2022 with Ohio police, when Adams County sheriff's deputies broke down the door to his home and raided the place under a warrant for drug trafficking and kidnapping. The search turned up nothing incriminating, and Afroman, real name Joseph Foreman, was never arrested or charged with anything. Because he had been unjustly targeted by the police and felt his rights and privacy had been trampled on,...

John Solomon is reporting on previously suppressed information indicating that, as early as 2020, we knew the Chinese were trying to interfere in our elections and that this intelligence was covered up. The burning question is, of course, why that happened. [Youtube video at source link] Solomon’s report is based on a 7 April 2020 National Intelligence Council Assessment. That report reads in part: “We assess that China and Russia are increasing their ability to analyze and manipulate large quantities of personal information in ways that will allow them to more effectively target and influence, or coerce, individuals and groups...

The world spent fifty years and hundreds of billions of dollars building Strategic Petroleum Reserves so that no geopolitical rupture could fully sever modern civilization from energy. The United States alone holds just over 400 million barrels of crude oil in salt caverns beneath the Gulf Coast. On March 11, 2026, the International Energy Agency authorized a record 400-million-barrel emergency release from member-country reserves, the largest coordinated drawdown in the Agency’s history. Energy insecurity has institutions, stockpiles, and doctrine. Fertilizer insecurity does not. No country appears to maintain a fertilizer reserve system remotely comparable in scale, doctrine, or strategic importance...

A year after the actor’s death, a generative AI version of Val Kilmer will co-star in an independent film, in one of the boldest uses yet of artificial intelligence in moviemaking. First Line Films announced Wednesday that Kilmer has posthumously joined the cast of a film titled “As Deep as the Grave.” The producers said that, before his death, Kilmer had signed on to perform in the movie but was unable to because of his health. Kilmer’s estate gave permission for his digital replication, and is being compensated for it. Mercedes Kilmer, the actor’s daughter, said the role resonated with...