Free Republic

A former Black Lives Matter activist-turned conservative influencer blasted the social justice organization as a “scam” — and insisted that Democrats are the party of “racism and violence.” Xaviaer DuRousseau, 29, revealed that did a complete 180 from his liberal upbringing during the 2020 George Floyd riots as he realized that the movement was a money-grab and that he was indoctrinated. “Once I started looking at the conservative side of the argument, I started realizing, oh, wait, socialism has literally never worked. BLM has always been a scam, and the Democratic Party has always been the party of racism and...

A Kentucky black history museum known for “shackling” patrons and posting “white guilt” videos is expected to receive a $1 million grant from the local city government. The Roots 101 African-American Museum in Louisville is set to receive the large sum from the local government as a part of a recently proposed budget. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the funds will be used to establish a permanent home for the black history museum. “With this budget, we’re sharing more of our history, with all of its depth and complexity,” Greenberg said last month. The museum aims to “to empower visitors...

An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home, according to trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine1. The drug could be a lifeline for those who still face real danger from the virus, such as care-home residents or transplant recipients on immune-suppressing medication. The advance arrives years after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the real-world impact might be felt by only a narrow band of individuals. Still, “as a 78-year-old with comorbidities, I certainly would use it if I had...

Whiny New York University students are in an uproar after renowned social psychologist and bestselling author Jonathan Haidt — who has argued that Gen-Zers are coddled and anxious — will deliver their commencement speech. Haidt, a psychologist at NYU’s Stern School of Business, was chosen by the school to deliver the 2026 graduation address at Yankee Stadium on Thursday — with administrators hailing him as one of the “most consequential scholars of the 21st century.” But an ultra-woke group of student government leaders quickly tried to derail his address, arguing in a lengthy and nonsensical statement that NYU’s selection proves...

Science, according to the European Union Brussels, the beating heart of the European Union’s bureaucratic empire – where “science” means whatever the green agenda demands and dissent gets you labeled a heretic. In a jaw-dropping display of totalitarian intolerance straight out of the climate cult playbook, a top EU official completely lost it during a public lecture by one of Europe’s leading geologists. The incident unfolded Monday night at the end of a conference featuring Professor Alain Préat, a respected geologist and one of the finest scientific minds of his generation. Préat had just delivered a measured, fact-based presentation painting...

The county has reported 12 Clade II cases this year, mostly among people who were not fully vaccinated. All involved men between ages 17 and 52, no Clade I cases have been reported in San Diego County. Bottle of Vaccine for booster shot for Smallpox and Monkeypox MPXV. San Diego County public health officials Tuesday urged people at greater risk for mpox to get both doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine as cases rise statewide and globally, including reports of the more severe Clade I strain. The county has reported 12 Clade II cases this year, mostly among people who were...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has identified more than 10,000 cases of potential fraud associated with a program that allows foreign students to extend their stay in the United States after graduating from college, ICE acting Director Todd Lyons told reporters Tuesday. At a press conference with officials from ICE and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Lyons outlined some of the findings of an agency investigation into fraud associated with the Optional Practical Training program. OPT allows foreign nationals who enter the United States on a student visa to work in the U.S. for 12, or in some cases 24, months....

A Virginia school district has come under fire again after a student was allegedly caught taking photos of classmates in the bathroom. A student believed to be transgender is reportedly being investigated at Freedom High School in the Loudoun County Public School District (LCPSD) for videotaping and photographing over 40 classmates in the bathrooms, according to local ABC affiliate WJLA. Sources told WJLA that the issue has reportedly been occurring for three years. The outlet reported that Principal Tania Brown sent an email to parents notifying them of the incident at the end of April. Brown added in the email...

Several staffers at a Texas elementary school have been fired for allegedly bullying a six-year-old autistic girl and encouraging others to do the same, her father says. Daniel Hall, 37, told KTRK that his daughter, Trinity, was 'manhandled' by a special education teacher and three teacher's aides at Jan Schiff Elementary in Fort Bend County on April 14. Hall said he was not notified of the incident until weeks later, when Principal Tiffany Agina contacted him to inform him that the staffers had been fired. The principal shared surveillance footage with Hall that allegedly showed the unidentified employees abusing Trinity....

The numbers don’t add up! New York City is already dumping a record $43 billion into its public schools while spending heaps more per-student than any other large US district — despite plummeting enrollment and mediocre test results. The massive price tag for educating Big Apple students could grow even more as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is finalizing his first budget proposal and as the city is already spending $44,000 per student — an unsustainable level of spending, budget watchdogs and education analysts said. The spending is also unacceptable, given Big Apple students’ middle-of-the-pack showing among urban school districts on standardized...

San Francisco public school officials’ sneaky new plan for massive school closures was hidden even from the district’s furious school board, according to a new report. The San Francisco Unified School District plans to close an unidentified number of schools by 2030 to deal with some 14,000 empty seats in the rapidly shrinking district, according to a memo sent to parents last month. Like other urban districts in California and across the country, the City by the Bay has seen years of enrollment declines in public schools which reflect declining birth rates and other demographic changes blamed on rising prices,...

A small group of striking graduate student workers rallied outside Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76’s private residence early Friday morning, marking a new escalation in the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers’ ongoing strike as contract negotiations with the University remain stalled. Roughly 10 demonstrators gathered outside Garber’s home from about 6 to 6:30 a.m., chanting and writing “CONTRACT NOW” in pink chalk on the sidewalk. The group represented a small fraction of HGSU-UAW, which represents roughly 5,000 graduate student workers. “Garber, Garber, stop stonewalling; this is HGSU calling!” demonstrators chanted. They also shouted, “Hey, Garber, how do you...

Another of his timeless hits entered the Hot 100 in May 1960.Sam Cooke made so many outstanding contributions to music history that it’s impossible to choose just one song that defines him. His smooth, lyrical and expressive voice adorned countless gems, from “You Send Me” to “Chain Gang,” “Only Sixteen” to “Cupid,” and of course the immortal “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Another of his all-time greats, “Wonderful World,” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 9, 1960. The song was written chiefly by A&M Records co-founder and hitmaker Herb Alpert with Lou Adler, but Cooke himself is credited...

The tree, known as Prometheus, was cut down to study, with permission from the US Forest Service. The stump of Prometheus in the Wheeler Bristlecone Pine Grove at Great Basin National Park, Nevada. Image credit: James R Bouldin via Wikimedia Commons (public domain) Science isn't always perfect; mistakes are made, occasionally to the detriment of one's subject. But what about inadvertently chopping down what would later turn out to be the world's oldest non-clonal tree? That’s exactly what happened to an unfortunate graduate student named Donald R. Currey back in the summer of 1964, who ended up responsible for the...

The beams are an in-kind contribution from CERN. Matthew Kapust / SURF The US has begun lowering 10 million pounds of steel nearly a mile underground to build the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), widely regarded as one of the world’s most ambitious particle physics experiments. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the premier US national lab for high-energy particle physics announced the start of the underground detector assembly for the massive neutrino project in South Dakota on May 7. It is carried out along with the Sanford Underground Research Facility and CERN. Transported deep underground, the steel beams will...

The call is coming from inside the house. The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais has made progressives even more determined to delegitimize the court — and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is among them. In a dissent involving a post-decision procedural question, Jackson accused the majority of acting out of pure partisanship. Her opinion said that the court “unshackles itself” from all constraint and “dives into the fray” (meaning the partisan fray). In its jurisprudence, “principles give way to power.” It is acting with an “abandon” that is “unwarranted and unwise.” These harsh charges occasioned a stinging and well-deserved...

It's vitriolic because it just encourages the asinine behaviors and reactions in those whose default setting is to be reductive of people,' he added.

During an exclusive interview with The Western Journal this week, Dr. Monique Yohanan said Americans have a right to question the country’s vaccine schedule and must learn to advocate for themselves in medical settings. Yohanan, who is director of the Center for Better Health at Independent Women, has an impeccable academic resume. She received her medical degree from the Dartmouth/Brown Program and a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins. She did her residency in internal medicine at Harvard and a fellowship in geriatrics at Stanford. In addition, Yohanan has held faculty appointments while maintaining active licensure and board certification...

In clips circulating on social media, women are seen running through crowded streets while groups of men pursue them. Moments later, the women are surrounded, their clothing torn off as they are groped and assaulted, while bystanders film and shout, with some appearing to cheer. In a statement, they described the Alue-Do festival as a fertility ritual, saying symbolic acts such as dragging and pouring sand on individuals are traditionally meant to invoke blessings for couples struggling to conceive

'How did we get here as a culture?' Paltrow asked Swisher. 'Obviously there's so much revenue and profit driving this whole thing, that's at the heart of it,' she continued. 'But how do you think we got to this place in culture where nothing matters and now all that matters is kind of these super rich white dudes who are breaking rules, setting rules, seemingly not caring so much about the downstream impact on everything, from health to culture.' Swisher responded, 'I think we have an idolatry of innovators, an idolatry of wealth, and if you're wealthy, you must be...