Free Republic

I am not in the habit of torturing my American friends with issues from my country of origin, Spain, unless it is to warn them of some danger that could very plausibly occur in other latitudes. We may be facing that very case. I had decided not to address the matter in these pages until I saw today how the American and British progressive press is lying viciously about what is actually happening in Spain.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner has postponed a string of events Sunday and Monday as rumors circulate among Maine Democrats and over social media about another potentially damaging story to come about the oyster farmer’s past.Platner postponed a planned town hall in Augusta on Sunday after reportedly missing a Fourth of July parade in Machias. The Gorham Democrats on Monday morning said a town hall set for Monday was postponed because Platner was “not feeling well.” And a Sanford town hall previously listed on Mobilize was later taken down.The Platner campaign did not immediately respond to a request for...

El-Sayed leads Stevens in the Democratic primary, while Rogers remains within the margin of error against all three tested Democrats.Michigan’s 2026 U.S. Senate race begins as one of the clearest tests of the midterm map. Democratic incumbent Gary Peters is not seeking another term, creating an open-seat contest in a state Donald Trump carried in 2024. It is also the only open Democratic-held Senate seat up in a Trump-won state, making Michigan one of the central battlegrounds for Senate control. (See crosstabs and technical report here). Our latest Quantus Insights survey of 947 Michigan voters finds the general election highly...

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers a speech marking America's 250th anniversary: "The irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional," he said. "For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best." "We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is...

A scathing report released on the Fourth of July says the National Museum of American History downplays the role of the founders while emphasizing social justice.In a broadside posted to its website just as Fourth of July fireworks were lighting up skies around the country on Saturday, the White House faulted the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History for what it said was a failure to properly celebrate the nation’s heritage, arguing that it had become a tool of political activism intent on denigrating the American story.The 162-page report, by the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, represents a sweeping attack...

WASHINGTON—A growing number of GOP lawmakers have little incentive to come to work or toe the party line, putting critical legislation in danger as Republicans lurch toward the midterms. Some are privately calling it the zombie Congress. GOP leaders are increasingly concerned that members will lose motivation to show up, or may break with the party if they do, potentially stalling or killing some bills, according to lawmakers and aides. While the Senate has been the main focus of GOP cracks, the House is also facing an uncertain summer and fall, with attendance issues and a renewed sense of independence...

Planned Parenthood will regain access to federal funding on Saturday, one year after Republicans were able to cut its clinics off from Medicaid. Last year, Republicans were successful in using the party-line One Big Beautiful Bill Act to achieve their long sought-after goal of defunding Planned Parenthood. But the complicated Senate rules involved in passing the bill meant the ban only lasted one year instead of 10. Come July 4, Medicaid will once again cover non-abortion care at Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide. Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions under the longstanding Hyde Amendment, but conservatives sought to...

Billionaire Peter Thiel stunned a largely liberal audience Tuesday at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival with a warning that democratic socialists are taking over the Democratic Party. During a panel discussion about the direction of humanity, Thiel lamented the cultural, technological and economic “stagnation” that has taken place in recent years, something he considered to be “very destabilizing” in the long term. He argued that the “haywire” effects of that stagnation trickled into politics. “My generation was the first one where things felt really stuck,” Thiel said. “I think millennials are doing less well than their boomer parents. It’s even...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued on Saturday his July Fourth address that he teased a day earlier —and nearly all eight minutes of it was spent talking about US President Donald Trump. Newsom’s office had shared some excerpts of the speech ahead of time he tries to grow his national brand in advance of a likely bid for the White House. The speech at that point seemed to focus on election policy to combat narratives from Trump that California’s elections were rigged. Instead, the governor also went on multiple asides personally attacking the president.

The rise of Nigel Farage has prompted political leaders across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to game the unthinkable: the breakup of the United Kingdom. Unionists who wish to save the union and nationalists who wish to end it are bracing for constitutional turmoil if Reform UK emerges triumphant – with Farage as prime minister or official leader of the opposition – after the next election. Representatives from each side believe a Farage-led government could trigger a hasty referendum on Irish unification and usher in Trump-style anti-immigration crackdowns that alienate the Celtic nations. The possibility of a strong Reform...

Socalist Colorado congressional candidate Melat Kiros blamed Israel’s activity in the Middle East for inspiring attacks on Jewish people in other countries during an interview on Wednesday. Kiros is part of a wave of anti-Israel, far-left candidates gaining popularity in the Democratic Party. She won her primary in her Denver-area district this week, ousting longtime incumbent Diana Degette on the heels of far-left candidates winning their primaries in New York last month.

A Pennsylvania State trooper was killed by an illegal immigrant trucker who entered the country under the Biden administration and obtained a commercial driver’s license from Massachusetts while refusing to leave the country. Trooper Michael E. Pahira, Jr., 44, was inspecting a semitruck on Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County at about 7 a.m. Wednesday when another truck went off the roadway and hit the first vehicle, creating a domino effect and striking the officer, state police said. Pahira’s patrol car was parked behind the cab with its emergency lights on as he inspected the vehicle parked on the right shoulder...

Commies are taking over the Democrat party!You might think that was a charge leveled by some rightwing reactionary who somehow confused socialism with communism. Instead it was the morbid fear expressed by longtime liberal Jonathan Chait in Wednesday's Atlantic magazine, "There’s Nothing Democratic About These Socialists."So panicked was Chait at the specter of communism taking over his beloved Democrat party that he did not just mention it in passing. In fact, the C-word was invoked eleven times in Chait's article in which he accuses the Democratic Socialists of America of being the parasitic pathway for injecting communism into its host...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s press team accidentally released an advance copy of his speech marking America’s 250th birthday Friday — revealing their painfully performative edits. The team of high-achieving Gen-Zers quibbled over fine points of American and Big Apple history, such as the minutiae of the revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn or when exactly the first Chinese immigrants arrived in the city. In a tortured internal debate, the leftist do-gooders also bent over backward to be inclusive, arguing the word “slave” shouldn’t be used and that black people should be mentioned.

Secret Service Missed 102 Warnings Before Butler Assassination Attempt on Trump, DHS Report Finds Inspector general says agents missed 102 warnings that could have prevented the attack on President Trump. BIG LEAGUE POLITICS JUL 03, 2026 A new Department of Homeland Security inspector general report concludes that the U.S. Secret Service failed to act on dozens of warning signs before the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at his July 13, 2024, campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The report, released Thursday by the DHS Office of Inspector General, details a cascade of communication failures, security lapses, and planning deficiencies that...

Zo say can you see…Mayor Zohran Mamdani decried capitalism and the US’ involvement in foreign wars during an address marking America’s 250th anniversary Friday — while sitting at George Washington’s desk.The 15-minute speech — which Mamdani gave while flanked by newly naturalized US citizens — balanced critiques with a celebration of a “grand experiment in self-governance.”The democratic socialist mayor elevated the plight and contributions by downtrodden Americans — slaves, Continental Army soldiers, immigrants of all types — with the alleged smallness of the “powerful.”“We see a city of contradictions within a nation of contradictions,” he intoned. “We see the wealthiest...

The tech industry faces a paradoxical crisis: companies are shedding human jobs to invest in AI tools that are currently more costly than the workers they replace. Major players like Uber and Microsoft report exorbitant AI spending, with budgets exhausted rapidly and little correlation to tangible value. This "tokenmaxxing" culture, where AI usage is incentivized over actual productivity, fuels massive waste. Despite widespread layoffs justified by AI reallocation, studies indicate AI is economically viable in only a fraction of roles. The unsustainable model of subsidized AI pricing is unwinding, forcing a market correction. The industry must now shift from indiscriminate...

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) called on Americans to confront the nation’s flaws rather than ignore them on the eve of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, framing “righteous dissent” as core to the country’s founding ideals. “This will be no ordinary day of celebration,” he said. “Two hundred fifty years presents a rare opportunity for more than 340 million people to turn together, both toward one another and toward ourselves, to take measure of who we are as a nation.” Speaking from former President George Washington’s desk at New York City Hall, the first-term mayor reflected on...

deepening rift within the Democratic Party is coming into sharper focus as the establishment grows frustrated with the rising influence of the party’s socialist wing. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., called out her Democratic colleagues for their "disrespectful" welcome of socialists into the "big tent" party. "I think that there are a lot of very disrespectful comments that are coming from some parts of the Democratic Party that are dismissing the voters who elected these individuals," Jayapal told CNN. Her comments come as socialism gains ground within the Democratic Party, with socialist candidates securing major primary victories and unseating established Democrats.

WATCH: James Talarico Says Bill Banning ‘Gender-Affirming Health Care to Trans Children’ Is ‘Christofascism’ download june 24, 2026, reused 7/2/26AP Photo/Eric Gay Mariane Angela2 Jul 2026574 2:17 Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico was caught on video describing a “Christofascism movement” as he criticized legislation restricting gender-affirming care for transgender minors and the state’s abortion law.