Free Republic

After the high of the Declaration of Independence, wartime reality set in for the founders.Michael O’Hanlon is a defense and strategy analyst at the Brookings Institution and the author of “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution.”Despite the heady moment in Philadelphia with the Declaration of Independence’s approval in early July, 1776, that summer was a tough one for the nation’s founders, George Washington in particular. The rest of that year — until Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the Battle of Trenton on Dec. 26 — would go down as the worst period of the...

An attorney celebrated by the Obama White House for campaigning against violence toward women is now facing nine criminal charges over an alleged yearlong campaign of abuse and intimidation against his girlfriend. You cannot make this up. Cody McDavis, 32, the 6-foot-8 former University of Northern Colorado basketball standout who later earned a law degree from UCLA and joined the firm Vedder Price, was charged on July 20 with six felony counts and three misdemeanors. Prosecutors in Los Angeles County Superior Court allege he “willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly” followed and harassed his girlfriend from July 2025 through June 2026, leaving...

Iran and Oman are close to an agreement to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic that would see both countries collect a so-called “service fee” to cover environmental and security costs. The New York Times reported late Monday, citing Iranian and US officials familiar with the developing accord, that ships entering the strait from the Indian Ocean via the Gulf of Oman would be required to take a route through Iranian territorial waters. Vessels exiting the strait from the Persian Gulf would take a route near Oman’s coast along the south side of the strait. Iran’s Foreign...

A high-ranking Westchester County police official who allegedly acted as her gangbanging son’s getaway driver at the scene of a Bronx shooting was fired Tuesday, officials announced. Jennifer Lackard was canned from her post as the deputy police commissioner with the Mount Vernon Police Department just hours after she was busted for allegedly chauffeuring her son after he pumped bullets outside the Bronx Criminal Court on June 29. Her immediate termination was directly tied to her criminal charges in aiding her 20-year-old son and “Slutty Gang” member. “Effective immediately, the City of Mount Vernon has terminated Jennifer Lackard’s employment,” the...

This summer, the journal JAMA Network Open published a study that purportedly found that abortion bans were increasing the risk of suicidal thoughts among female high school students. This study analyzed four years of Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from more than 300,000 high school students. It has been covered by a number of media outlets, including Newsweek, the 19th News, and Econofact. Not surprisingly, there is much less here than meets the eye. The study purportedly found an increase in suicidal ideation among teenage girls who live in states with pro-life laws. However, there was no statistically significant increase...

JANGAON: A registered medical practitioner (RMP) has been arrested, while an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) is absconding, for allegedly conducting an illegal abortion that resulted in the death of a woman after a sex determination test reportedly revealed she was carrying a female foetus. Police said the victim’s mother and the owner of a scanning centre, who allegedly facilitated the procedure, are also absconding. The victim, A Shravani, a resident of Kolkonda village in Devuruppala mandal, died on July 25 at Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, after suffering severe bleeding following the alleged abortion. According to police, the procedure was carried out...

A KFC incident making headlines across Kentucky reportedly began with an ordinary inconvenience before taking a dangerous turn. A Lexington woman is facing a felony charge after authorities said she pointed an AR-15-style rifle at a KFC employee during a confrontation over a delayed drive-through order. According to WKYT, 33-year-old Nayda Roman allegedly became frustrated while waiting for food at the KFC on Richmond Road in Lexington. The reported confrontation happened on May 11, although Roman was not taken into custody until late July. An arrest report states that Roman exchanged words with members of the restaurant staff before leaving...

The Primary: As of August 2026, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is running in a highly competitive Democratic primary in Michigan against establishment centrist Representative Haley Stevens. Historical Potential: If he secures the nomination, he will be the first Muslim major-party nominee for the U.S. Senate. Winning the November general election would make him the first practicing Muslim to serve in the upper chamber. (Note: Former candidate Mehmet Oz, who ran in 2022, is a secular Muslim but did not win his election). If he wins, this means he used Israelophobia to Avance Islamization backed by the Hamas wing of the Democratic...

Elisabeth-Jane Ross, 38, was found stuffed inside the travel bag in an abandoned building last week. Greek police said a 26-year-old man from Afghanistan is in custody on charges of manslaughter, robbery and violating weapons law – though the exact details have yet to be finalised. Cops arrested the man on Thursday and hauled him to police headquarters where they say he “confessed to his actions”. He reportedly admitted his part in dumping Elisabeth inside a suitcase before hauling it to an abandoned site in Kypseli where she was later found. Investigations by the Greek police alongside the National Crime...

Even the bookie couldn’t believe the bets that Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter was throwing down. In the latest episode of a “30 for 30”-style documentary, “The Betrayal of Shohei Ohtani,” the bookie for Ippei Mizuhara, who pled guilty to stealing millions from Ohtani, admitted to ESPN that even he was dumbfounded by the vast wagers that were being placed. “He was absolutely bananas, the amount of bets he was making,” bookie Matthew Boyer told ESPN in the podcast. “He was trying to dig out a hole, and that hole made him even poorer of a gambler because he’s betting big payout...

They didn’t love his swagger. Former Mayor Eric Adams got heckled and shouted down during a Wisconsin meeting as he tried to pitch locals on an AI data center, a wild video shows. The excruciating video — first reported by Hell Gate — shows the one-term mayor awkwardly introduce himself to the Wisconsin Rapids crowd, with his name met by an avalanche of boos during the Saturday meeting. “You belong in prison!” one attendee shouted, referencing Adams’ controversially dismissed federal corruption case. The cheesehead kerfuffle is the latest post-mayoralty headscratcher from Adams, who opted not to run for a second...

Explanation: What causes unusual knots of gas and dust in planetary nebulas? Seen also in the Ring Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula and NGC 2392, the knots' existence was not initially predicted, and their origins are still not well understood. Pictured here is a fascinating image of part of the Helix Nebula by the James Webb Space Telescope showing tremendous detail in infrared light. The cometary knots have masses similar to the Earth but have sizes typically several times the orbit of Pluto. One hypothesis for the fragmentation and evolution of the knots includes existing gas being driven out by a...

Tiffany at 45%. Hong at 42.2%.

A stone-faced Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that his former son-in-law, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), has put his family through the “seventh level of hell” as calls grow for Miller to step down from Congress. It was the latest public appearance by Moreno, whose daughter, Emily Moreno, has accused Miller of abusing her and their daughter. Emily Moreno has claimed that Miller pointed a gun at her head, doused her with scalding hot water, shoved her into a wall, and fractured their daughter’s collarbone. Miller has vehemently denied the allegations. Approached by TMZ DC’s...

Years before Chad Williams, 24, showed up at the new Twin Falls fast food joint, he expressed horror at the randomness of an armed carjacking in his hometown of Waddell, Arizona. “He would have killed you or me for walking out of our front door at the wrong time over a truck he would sell for just $8,000.” Williams, whose X bio said that he was a “former foster care youth” and that he participated in Boys State — a leadership program for top students — in 2019, stopped posting in July 2025. He mostly commented on news of the...

Another violent, cursing Democrat takes a fall. Kirill Basin, a democratic candidate for Congress, was arrested on Keawakapu Beach on Saturday. Kirill is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda in Hawaii. He was arrested after a violent altercation at Keawakapu Beach in South Kihei. South Kihei is a census‑designated place in Maui County, Hawaii, located on the leeward (south) side of Maui, between Maʻalaea and Wailea. The ambitious Democrat was filmed taunting a group on the beach, saying, "What you gonna do? What you gonna do?" He was then filmed getting knocked out cold in one punch from a...

@RupertLowe10 I want to be really clear with my words here, as I have done since the day I launched Restore Britain as a national political party. Islam’s influence over our way of life is far too large, far too powerful, far too much. I visited streets in Greater Manchester where the local British population have been replaced, there is no other word for it - replaced. We were almost chased out. Why has that been allowed to happen? Go and watch the vote count for those areas. Stacks and stacks and stacks of Labour votes. A mountain of them....

A high-ranking Westchester County police official drove the getaway car for her son in an apparent gangland shooting in The Bronx, police and sources said Tuesday. Jennifer Lackard, a deputy police commissioner with the Mount Vernon Police Department, was arrested at her home Tuesday morning, along with her son, Chase Lackard, 20, after the young man allegedly shot at a group of rivals near the Bronx Criminal Court on June 29 at 11:57 p.m, police said. Nobody was injured in the shooting, police said. The pair were hit with attempted murder, attempted assault, criminal possession of a firearm, conspiracy and...

Thanks to fossilized evidence from Richmond, Queensland, researchers found a marine reptile had eaten a flying reptile shortly before becoming a meal for a larger predator. This is some of the first fossilized evidence of its kind, according to a study in the journal Gondwana Research, and helps us better understand what happened beneath ancient waves over 100 million years ago...Inside the fossilized belly of a 19- to 22-foot ichthyosaur -- a prehistoric dolphin-like marine reptile -- researchers uncovered something they'd never seen before. Thanks to advanced 3D imaging, the research team found pieces of a pterosaur, a flying reptile,...

An Evangelist influencer from Florida was booted from an Alaska Airlines flight on Thursday after preaching to her fellow passengers during a take-off delay. Whitney Lynn, 40, filmed the bizzare scene on Alaska Airlines flight 708 out of Orlando International Airport in a series of Instagram videos, including the moment she was told she was apparently making crew members feel unsafe. The San Diego-bound flight was delayed prior to take off, which is when Lynn, started to preach from the aisle of the plane.