Free Republic

It’s time again to dig up the story about Al Capone’s vault. Forty years ago this Tuesday (April 21), a live syndicated television special drew a record 30 million viewers with a tantalizing premise: Crews were going to blast their way into a mysterious sealed chamber in the basement of Al Capone’s onetime crime headquarters, the Lexington Hotel, in Chicago’s South Loop. Would they uncover riches? Bodies of Capone rivals? IRS agents and a medical examiner would be standing by. Prohibition-era gun discovered in walls of distillery linked to Al Capone Alas, the final moments of “The Mystery of Al...

Explanation: Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two? Last month, after being dropped off by a helicopter at a high mountain peak in the Alps near the Swiss Italian border, an adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of our Milky Way galaxy to be visible during the night. These were the inner arch looking in toward the center of our galaxy on the left, visible just before sunrise, and the outer arch on the right visible just after sunset. But there were three arches. The surprised astrophotographer soon realized that the sky was so dark that an...

Kevin Warsh, the 56-year-old former Federal Reserve governor, was in the hot seat for his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing and said his Fed would be independent from the White House. Warsh fielded questions on issues ranging from his views on monetary policy to his sprawling and complex personal finances to his ties to the Trump White House. He would become the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed. Questions about the Fed’s long-cherished independence have dominated the discourse surrounding the central bank during President Donald Trump’s second term. Warsh gave a qualified endorsement of Fed independence — but noted he doesn’t...

Houston Police Officers’ Union: “In no way does the HPOU or its leadership condone or tolerate racist behavior from any of our officers.”A Houston police officer has been relieved of duty after a video circulating on social media allegedly shows her making offensive, racist remarks, according to the Houston Police Department. Officer Ashley Gonzalez was sworn in in January 2024 and assigned to the South Gessner Patrol Division. She has been relieved of duty pending an investigation, an HPD source confirmed Tuesday morning. Gonzalez was identified as the speaker in a video of a racist rant that has gone viral...

Carson Bender was set up at the base of a tree while hunting on private land near Nekoosa — about 100 miles north of Madison — when he turned around to find the fierce predator stalking him. The 19-year-old hunter quickly whipped out his phone to record the encounter as the bobcat slowly inched closer to him, video posted on his Instagram page shows. “I pan over with the phone, and the bobcat is just staring at me,” he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “I was like, uh-oh.” The cat locked in on Bender for a few tense moments — then,...

NEW YORK, NY — Former President Barack Obama and current New York City Mayor Zorhan Mamdani delighted preschool students this week by taking turns reading passages from the Communist Manifesto. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles," Obama recited to the kids. "The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Right, kids?" The preschoolers looked on in admiration and slight confusion as the two politicians continued their reading, pausing only to make sure the kids were...

U.S. Fiscal Situation Continues to Deteriorate In just the past week, the debt and deficits of the United States took further blows as spending increases, falling revenues, and geopolitical hostilities tightened the funding vice. Distractions vs. Long-Term Trends Even if you're primarily a precious metal investor, you've likely been distracted by war headlines for the past few weeks. Over that same time, however, other long-term headlines have surfaced that will greatly impact gold and silver over time. You may have missed them, so, for this week's post, let's recap. Monthly Treasury Report – March Deficit Let's start with the latest...

imo, There's no doubt in MY mind that Mamdani was selected to be the Mayor.After seeing two rabid Muslims singing a relatively Protestant church bus song together with some very enthusiastic (whom obviously KNEW the song, thus . . church/children Sunday School ..attendees) children, it appears that the radicals have invaded us and are stepping up their indoctrination the way they ALWAYS do . . . . they use our own ways and laws against us.The plan is to take over the Island of Manhattan and eventually make it a Caliphate / Islamic State. . . . . We are...

Media liberals have been performing an increasingly common shtick. They piously proclaim that they are not comparing President Donald Trump and MAGA to Hitler and the Nazis ...and then they proceed to do exactly that. The latest example of this absurdly disingenuous technique comes via David A. Graham in Saturday's Atlantic magazine with "The Film That Explains Contemporary America."The title itself actually says that the film directed by Marcel Ophuls which is the excellent documentary The Sorrow and The Pity about life in occupied France during World War II "EXPLAINS Contemporary America." And yet Graham after the obvious comparison presents...

Jean Raspail’s ‘The Camp of the Saints’ isn’t a racist screed, it’s a story about how civilizations die. In an act of censorship that liberals would normally decry as fascist and authoritarian, Amazon banned a new edition of The Camp of the Saints by the late French novelist Jean Raspail — and then quietly re-listed the book after online backlash to the company’s attempted censorship. The book, published by a small outfit called Vauban Books, was removed from Amazon’s U.S. site on Monday with almost no explanation. As of this writing, Amazon has not explained why it de-listed the...

A billboard campaign has been launched promoting abortion to veterans in Georgia, New Mexico, and Virginia. Key Takeaways: * Vet Voice Foundation (VVF) partnered with The Brigid Alliance to place billboards near Veterans Affairs (VA) clinics and hospitals. * The billboards include messages like "We've got your six," and promise that the Brigid Alliance will handle all the logistics for abortion-seeking women. * The Brigid Alliance said the billboard campaign was launched in response to changes in abortion coverage through the VA. The Backstory: In December of 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reversed a Biden administration rule allowing VA...

The mullahs and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are driven by fervent Islamic fundamentalism. Donald Trump’s opponents have shifted the focus from the existential threat posed by their ideology, weapons, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians across the Middle East to transient oil price spikes and Trump’s alleged derangement. Although most Muslims are not Islamists (militant Islamic fundamentalists), all Islamists are Muslims. Because of immigration and fertility rates, the Muslim population in Europe and the United States has exploded, exceeding 50 million in the EU (about 8% of the EU’s population), and 4 million in the United States. Pew projects Muslims will...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believes the United States is “going to end up with a great deal” with Iran to end the weeks-long war. “I think they have no choice,” Trump said during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” when asked what he expected to come out of a second round of peace negotiations with Iran. “We’ve taken out their Navy, we’ve taken out their Air Force, we’ve taken out their leaders,” the president said. “We’ve taken out their leaders, frankly, which does complicate things in one way, but these leaders are much more rational,” Trump said....

The question: Should the constitution of Virginia be amended YES is FOR redistricting NO is AGAINST redistricting GO VOTE!

When I consider our new Mayor Mamdani and his legions of committed followers, the thought I can’t get away from is “How is it possible to be this ignorant?” Right now here in New York, Mamdani is moving forward with his plan to open a chain of government-owned grocery stores, at least one for each of our five boroughs. The underlying concept is that groceries have become too expensive for low income people to buy, undoubtedly due to evil capitalists siphoning off vast profits somewhere in the system. In the latest iteration of his proposal, Mamdani has said that the...

#BREAKING: WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS TRUMP ACCUSER E. JEAN CARROLL SECRETLY MET WITH DNC OFFICIALS, CONFESSED ON TAPE THAT HER ALLEGATIONS AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP ARE FALSE. An individual with "inside knowledge" of this meeting says that Carroll received $10 MILLION FROM THE DNC in addition to her MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BOOK DEAL AND HEFTY FEDERAL LAWSUIT which is the reason that she FABRICATED these allegations against our President. She is also alleged to be CAUGHT ON THIS TAPE ADMITTING that she has in fact never actually met President Trump. Once again, TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING. Now it's time for him to TURN...

Mick Betancourt, a veteran writer, producer and showrunner with a long list of credits on crime dramas and action series like the newest seasons of the Alan Ritchson-starrer Reacher, witnessed a violent crime happening in real time on New York City’s Lower East Side as if it were ripped straight from one of his scripts. Rather than sit idly by to see how it played out from afar, he sprang into action to chase down the suspect who — spoiler alert! — ended up in handcuffs by the time the harrowing incident was over. But not before Betancourt bolted approximately...

Black Woman Babysitter Brutally Beats White Kids 58 Times with Belt & Hanger. A 24-year-old black woman babysitter was caught on video savagely beating three young white boys aged 2, 4, and 6. She struck them 58 times with a belt and hanger while they were in her care through a city-funded program. she now faces assault charges. No shame, no regret.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf sent a direct warning to President Donald Trump Monday on X, saying that Iran will not accept negotiations with the U.S. while under threat. "Trump, by imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, seeks, in his view, to turn the negotiating table into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering," he said. "We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threat, and over the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield," Ghalibaf added. Ghalibaf led the Iranian delegation in talks with Vice President J.D. Vance...

Whether in political parties or the new media, there seems to be a whole lot of Chinese-friendly ideas floating around. hina has successfully infiltrated every aspect of American politics, and we’re seeing the consequences. What paved the way forward was the utter fragmentation of the American political scene. No longer do we have a strong Democrat-versus-Republican divide; instead, myriad political splinter groups, Democrat subsets: labor-backed organizers, libertarian-leaning activists, pro-immigration coalitions, and growing Muslim and other identity-based blocs, or the smaller number of Republican subsets: evangelical conservatives, MAGA-aligned populists, America Firsters, or defense hawks. In addition, our government is fragmented: there...