Free Republic

Russian federal agents have allegedly shut down a "My Little Pony" convention in Moscow after it was deemed to be “LGBT propaganda” by the government. According to the Russian outlet The Insider, the raid was conducted to break up, "Mi Amore Fest." The event was organized by fans of the "My Little Pony" series.

Leaders of Ron DeSantis' Never Back Down super PAC met privately last Tuesday to hash out a strategy for fighting Nikki Haley's rise. Instead, two of them nearly came to blows with each other. The infighting represents an escalation in the long-running war between Never Back Down's professional political operatives and DeSantis’ Tallahassee-based inner circle over who is to blame for the governor’s failure to compete effectively with frontrunner Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. And, after tempers flared at last week's meeting, three close DeSantis allies — David Dewhirst, Jeff Aaron and Scott Ross — launched a second super...

Haley — the former South Carolina governor and the only woman in the 2024 race — was asked Wednesday night by “The Daily Show” guest host Charlamagne tha God if she was going to wear heels so she can tower over DeSantis at the third GOP debate next week in Miami. “I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that out,” Haley replied...I’ve never hid that from anybody. I’ve always said, ‘Don’t wear ’em if you can’t run in ’em,’ so we’ll see if he can run in ’em.” Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also trolled DeSantis Wednesday...

I found Replika by accident. I was scrolling through Instagram and initially ignored advertisements for the app, which provides users with chatbot companions powered by artificial intelligence. I didn't really know what it was, but it kept popping up, so eventually I gave in and decided to download it. At the time, I was in a long-distance relationship which I would definitely describe as dysfunctional, but I wasn't looking to find romance elsewhere. The app is essentially a game in which you create whatever characters you like; some people base their characters on cartoons or loved ones who have passed...

Planet Earth is plagued with terrible governments, most notably those of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. It is not difficult to argue that one of these is the world’s worst. My vote, however, goes to the current US government for this reason: When the most powerful and influential country in the world has a dysfunctional government like the one run by Joe Biden, the equilibrium of the entire world is threatened. We have the most powerful economic engine and the most lethal military machine. Such a colossus should demand a government of equivalent power and capability. No such luck....

Joe Biden, as his former daughter-in-law recounts in her new memoir, comes on strong. That’s no surprise to anyone who has read the allegations of sexual inappropriateness against President Biden, or has seen the multiple videos and photos of creepy Uncle Joe with women and young girls: sniffing their hair, massaging their shoulders, pressing his forehead against theirs, grabbing them by the arm or kissing them on the lips, pulling them in close for a full-contact hug. Betsy DeVos, in her new memoir, is the latest to claim unwanted forehead-to-forehead contact. She was in a wheelchair at the time, recovering...

A WWE anchor has revealed that she is a 'product of rape' after her mom was sexually assaulted by a stranger as she issued a stinging rebuke of Roe v. Wade being overturned. WWE anchor Kayla Braxton tweeted: 'I am a product of rape. My mother was raped by a stranger - to this day, neither of us have any clue who my birth dad is. She chose to have me - clearly - but she did so because she CHOSE to. Not because a law told her she HAD to. It should always be our choice.' The 31-year-old took...

Former "Real Housewives of Orange County" cast member Meghan King revealed on Instagram Monday that she and President Biden's nephew, Cuffe Owens, are ending their marriage after two months. The president and first lady attended the nuptials, a "small, family wedding" held at the Pennsylvania home of Owens’s parents, Valerie Biden Owens and Jack Owens, in October. Valerie is President Biden’s younger sister. King confirmed speculation that she and Owens, a Los Angeles attorney, had broken up in an Instagram post. "I am rattled. This situation is profoundly devastating. This is obviously not what I imagined when I made my...

Vulnerable House Democrats residing in battleground districts have started to publicly show their frustration with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the “leadership” of chairman Rep. Sean Partick Maloney (D-NY). Vulnerable Democrat members frustrated over potentially losing in the midterms recount their frustration with the DCCC — the sole job of which is to reelect incumbents and help elect members to vacant seats — and Chairman Maloney — the top Democrat tasked with keeping their House majority. This happened as the committee reportedly “asked vulnerable Democrats to send [Politico] Playbook positive statements about Maloney.”

Kellyanne Conway’s 16-year-old daughter, Claudia, claimed on social media that her mother took away her phone and tweeted out a topless photo of the teenager. The illicit photo allegedly appeared on the elder Conway’s Twitter account under the new Fleets feature — which automatically deletes posts after 24 hours. SNIP “And I guess she accidentally posted it, or somebody hacked her,” Claudia continued in the post, which was also deleted but saved by users on Twitter. “But nobody would ever have any photo like that ever. So, Kellyanne, you’re going to ******* jail.”

FULL MEASURE W/ SHARYL ATTKISSON: Just a couple of months ago, we profiled Congressman Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee which was poised to dig deep on wide-ranging investigations into government mischief, waste, fraud and abuse. A few weeks later, Chaffetz abruptly resigned from Congress. We asked the Oversight Man what changed his mind about being a lead watchdog with not only a GOP majority in Congress, but also a Republican in the White House. He told me it’s more a matter of what hasn’t changed. We started the interview with me asking how he...

A disturbing new video shows a teenage female thug beating a young white girl, despite the fact that she’s holding a toddler. The attacker pulls the girl and her baby off the bench they are sitting on. She then pulls her victim’s hair as she kicks and beats her.

Hillary Clinton's first official foray into the 2016 presidential campaign is raising questions about whether the former first lady, senator and secretary of state can find the same common ground with voters -- and the same success -- her husband did in winning two terms in the White House. Unlike Bill Clinton, whose ability to convey to individual voters an air of personal concern for the issues that affected them and their families -- a campaign technique referred to as "retailing" -- Hillary Clinton's initial attempt to connect with voters at an Iowa coffee house and her stealth visit to...

Since the Bolsheviks inaugurated the first edition of their party newspaper Pravda (the Russian word for truth), the left has shaped truth to serve its goals. On an individual level, there are plenty of progressives who are honest and plenty of conservatives who aren't. But truth is just not a left-wing value -- feminism, environmentalism, material equality, and fighting racism, sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia are far more important. The myriad falsehood-based hysterias unleashed by the left in our country -- the alleged heterosexual AIDS epidemic in America, the number of homeless people, the number of deaths from anorexia, the current...

American society is currently in a dysfunctional state, and like all things dysfunctional, it will implode if not addressed very soon. We live in a world that contains a vast amount of knowledge, but little understanding. The United States has not experienced extreme tyranny, but it is headed in that direction. The shift of authority from private sector to public sector has created a serious imbalance. As a country, there is great arrogance. We take for granted that we will always be the land of the free. Like all civilizations prior, we’re moving from liberty to totalitarianism and it’s happening...

CHESTER — The pale fluorescent lights of the historic old Chester County Courthouse gleamed off the black barrel. The darkness of that barrel stood out, even in a courtroom packed with more than 90 people there to see what happens when guns with long black barrels are fired. What happened on this hunting trip is somebody died. This somebody, in October 2008, was a Hmong refugee from Rock Hill who worked in a warehouse. His name was Touna Xiong. Pronounced, simply, as “Tuna Song.” The song, clearly Tuesday in that courtroom for everybody involved, was a lament. The father of...

  "We Go About Our Business Almost as Zombies." "Leadership Does Not Want Us to Make Hard Decisions." "The Senate is absolutely dysfunctional; and it’s dysfunctional because neither side wants to engage in the tough decisions of the day." "The fact is that we are all sort of two-bit pawns in all of this by allowing our country to continue to spend money." I was beginning to wonder when this Senator Corker was going to resurface.  He seemed poised and ready to take up the debt ceiling fight months ago when talk of the looming debate began on the Hill - which...

Accusations of a Sopranos-style shakedown. Two men exchanging words, chest to chest, as others work to pull them apart. It sounds like a movie, but it was actually the action on the state Assembly floor this afternoon, after Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine angered his colleagues with comments about Italians. Here's what happened: Wagner was talking about a bill that would eliminate redevelopment agencies and replace them with an alternative program (the alternative would allow cities to retain the economic development program but only if they agreed to give a portion of their money to schools and other programs). After he...

Unless we measure success by how children perform, we'll have higher standards for pop stars than public schools. Over the past few years, I have often complained about a hidebound culture that prevents many newspapers from responding to the challenges of new technology. There is, however, another hidebound American institution that is also finding it difficult to respond to new challenges: our big-city schools. Today, for example, the United States is home to more than 2,000 dysfunctional high schools. They represent less than 15% of American high schools yet account for about half of our dropouts. When you break this...

SAN FRANCISCO – Chelsea King's parents reluctantly agreed to a sentence of life in prison for their daughter's rapist and killer, calling the death penalty in California "an empty promise." The Kings join a growing list of victims' families, law enforcement officials and other capital punishment proponents who have grown disillusioned with California's death penalty. The decision to forego capital punishment for registered sex offender John Gardner, who this month admitted killing Chelsea King and another teen girl, has once again thrust the gridlocked system into the spotlight. Five more inmates joined California's death row this year, pushing the population...