Free Republic

One of the better posters/commenters on X is the aptly-named @DataRepublican, who does some great work digging into data, crunching numbers, taking big nests of snakes and laying them all out straight, and uncovering things that just generally make the left uncomfortable. DataRepublican has outdone herself on this thread. Let's look at a few highlights. First, the opening post: [X post at link] DataRepublican writes in full: Ex-USAID employees describe how, before January 20, they moved internal groups off government systems and into encrypted Signal chats, then quickly linked with foreign partners and NGOs after the inauguration. This attempt at...

Daiji World reports that workers restoring a Shiva temple near the Javvadu Hills in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu discovered 103 gold coins dated to the Chola period, which spanned the ninth through the thirteenth centuries A.D. The coins had been neatly stacked in a pot and buried beneath the temple floor. The temple is thought to have been built during the reign of King Rajaraja Cholan III, between 1216 and 1246. Temple wealth flourished during the late Chola period, when gold-based trade networks were active across South India, according to researchers from the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments...

DALLAS — Improper maintenance led to a brake system "anomaly" that caused an American Airlines plane to overrun a runway at DFW Airport in February 2024, a new report from the National Transportation Safety Board detailed. The agency's final report on the incident was released Monday, Nov. 10. The incident happened Feb. 10, 2024, after American Airlines flight 1632 from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport landed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and lost "braking effectiveness," causing it to come to a stop on the paved overrun area on the south end of runway 17L. No one was injured in the...

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will enact a new policy that will prohibit transgender female athletes from competing against biological women, according to multiple reports. The policy is reportedly set to cover those with differences of sex development (DSD). The IOC’s current policy leaves it up to each individual sport’s governing body to make policies governing transgender athletes. But as the IOC changed its leadership, The Times of London reported on Monday that its policies are set to change as well. IOC President Kirsty Coventry called for "protecting" the women’s category in June and there was "overwhelming support" from IOC...

What had been hailed as one of the wisest decisions of all time was declared null and void today, as a federal judge overturned King Solomon's verdict and ordered a baby from a recent maternity dispute to be cut in two. People throughout Israel had praised the king for his shrewd judgment in the case, in which two women each claimed to be the baby boy's rightful mother. Solomon had wisely suggested that the woman who was more willing to give up her rights to the child than see him come to harm was the baby's true mother, but a...

Not getting off “Scott” free. An Alabama police force playfully exacted revenge against a group of high schoolers who had covered their department headquarters — along with the rest of the town — with toilet paper as part of an elaborate senior prank. Heflin Police Chief Ross McGlaughn vowed to get back on the Class of 2026 when the students launched their overnight TP attack across the small Alabama city. The police department’s main building was dressed with rolls of toilet paper that covered the entrance, squad cars and the roof. “It’s just fun,” the student leaders told CBS News...

The traditional Italian observation -- Se non è vero, è ben trovato (even if it isn't true, it makes a good story) -- reflects a good deal of human history.One such colorful event was the 14th-century War of the Bucket between the Italian cities of Bologna and Modena. The story is that after years of tension, a group of Modenese entered Bologna and stole the bucket from the town well.The Bolognese demanded its return, but the ruler of Modena refused, and war ensued, culminating in the Modenese victory at the Battle of Zappolino in 1325...After the collapse of the Western...

Centuries of storytelling, scholarship, and reinterpretation have shaped how we imagine the Vikings and their gods, but much of that image may rest on myth rather than history. Scholars are now uncovering how Christian writers, political movements, and even modern pop culture redefined the “pagan North” to reflect their own ideals. Credit: Shutterstock ============================================================================= Scholars reveal that much of what we think we know about Vikings and Norse mythology is based on later reinterpretations rather than original sources. Scholars in the field of Scandinavian studies caution that much of what people believe about Vikings and Norse paganism cannot be confirmed...

Democratic strategist James Carville predicted on his "Politics War Room" podcast that Democrats will win the 2028 presidential election and move to expand the Supreme Court. CARVILLE: So I want to talk to Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, Justice Barrett, Justice Kavanaugh, Justice Gorsuch. I might be forgetting one. I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. A Democrat is going to be elected in 2028. You know that, I know that. It's going to be a Democratic House. It's going to be a Democratic Senate. The Democratic president is going to announce a special transition advisory committee on...

If Chuck Schumer and his gang actually had to stand up and talk for days at a time, maybe they wouldn’t be so arrogant about keeping their Obamacare subsidies in the budget. And if the rest of the Senate couldn’t do any other business that would be fine. The same thing goes for the Republicans when they’re in the minority. In any case, if you’re going to have a filibuster, make them do it right!

The Supreme Court on Monday declined an opportunity to overturn its landmark precedent recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, tossing aside an appeal that had roiled LGBTQ advocates who feared the conservative court might be ready to revisit the decade-old decision. Instead, the court denied an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who now faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges allowed same-sex couples to marry. The court did not explain its reasoning to deny the appeal, which...

: President Trump issues pardons to Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Mark Meadows, Tyler Bowyer, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, and several others President Trump issued a sweeping pardon overnight that included Rudy Giuliani and more than 70 others accused of, indicted for, or charged with various crimes related to the 2020 elections.

Happy Birthday Marines. Semper Fi.Birthday Message on YouTube.

1. According to legend, the first Marine Corps recruitments took place in a bar. Marine tradition holds that the Corps was formed in a bar. The story dates to late November 1775, when newly commissioned Captains Samuel Nicholas and Robert Mullan supposedly organized the first Marine Corps muster at Tun Tavern, a popular watering hole in Philadelphia. The two officers are said to have lured potential Marines with mugs of beer and the promise of adventure on the high seas, and their recruits later made up the first five companies that served aboard Continental Navy ships. While there’s little hard...

Bill Maher presses his guests on the migration of wealth from high-tax blue states to Florida -- what some are calling "Wall Street South." From rising costs in New York to the surge in Florida’s real estate market, this debate reveals how much post-COVID economics and state policy have reshaped where Americans live and invest. "Bill Maher: The Rich Are Fleeing Blue States -- and He Explains Why" | 7:07 Raw Nation Report | 679 subscribers | 159,308 views | November 8, 2025

Artist’s impression of Spicomellus afer. Credit: Matt Dempsey Research on fossils reveals that ankylosaurs’ iconic tail weapons evolved much earlier than scientists had previously believed. =========================================================================== The world’s most unusual dinosaur is even stranger than scientists realized… A new study published in Nature reveals that Spicomellus afer possessed a tail weapon more than 30 million years earlier than any other known ankylosaur. It also featured a distinctive bony collar lined with meter-long spikes extending outward from each side of its neck. Spicomellus is recognized as the oldest ankylosaur ever discovered, dating back over 165 million years to the Middle Jurassic...

SEBASTIAN, Fla. — A Sebastian man with an extensive criminal history was taken into custody this week in Indian River County after a standoff that lasted several hours, deputies said. According to a post on the Indian River County Sheriff's Office Facebook page, deputies received an alert from license plate readers about a stolen Ford F-350 heading westbound near Louisiana Avenue on County Road 512. Rodgers was seen unloading wood at the home, but fled inside after seeing law enforcement. Authorities said Rodgers hid in the attic of the home for several hours before video showed him falling through the...

When I try to access news max on Firefox using DuckDuckGo search engine I get the message "Secure Connection Failed". What's going on?

Eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted Sunday evening to proceed to a House-passed continuing resolution, taking a major step toward ending the 40-day shutdown. The Senate voted 60-40 to advance the House bill, which will serve as the legislative vehicle for a bipartisan deal to fund military construction, veterans’ affairs, the Department of Agriculture and the legislative branch through Sept. 30 and the rest of government through Jan. 30. It sets the stage for the House to return to Washington later this week to vote on the bill in hope of getting to President Trump’s desk for his...

Two Major League Baseball pitchers allegedly conspired with sports bettors to rig pitches they threw so the bettors would profit from illegal wagers, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and the FBI announced in an indictment on Sunday. Cleveland Guardians player Luis Leandro Ortiz was arrested Sunday at Logan Airport in Boston. Emmanuel Clase, also of the Guardians, was not yet in custody as of Sunday afternoon. According to the indictment, the pitchers started conspiring with sports bettors in 2023 on specific pitches they would throw during MLB games. The bettors then used that information to place prop bets worth hundreds of...