Free Republic

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg said during a Friday interview that Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett is an ideal role model for their party. Crockett has rapidly surged to prominence with her racially-charged tirades and inflammatory anti-Republican attacks, such as calling wheelchair-bound Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels.” When radio host Charlamagne Tha God requested Hogg’s thoughts on Crockett, the DNC vice chair gushed about the congresswoman, saying she delivers the “authenticity” that Americans desire. “Jasmine Crockett — I love her. She is amazing. I think that people want to see somebody who fights and calls...

Standard & Poor’s 500 downgraded its credit rating of city of Los Angeles general obligation bonds, citing its “weakening financial position and an emerging structural imbalance.” Los Angeles faces a $1 billion deficit, having burned through its once-record reserves in just two years. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is currently seeking a state bailout, but given that the state says it has “no capacity” for new spending commitments, it’s unclear if the funding will materialize. S&P warns that if trends continue, it could further downgrade the city’s credit rating, which would further increase borrowing costs due to higher associated risk...

A former judge and his wife were taken into custody after authorities raided their home in Las Cruces following accusations that they had an alleged Tren de Aragua member living in their home. KFOX14/CBS4 were on the scene Thursday afternoon when the home of former Dona Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy Cano, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a search warrant and a probable cause arrest warrant, and both were taken into custody. A spokesperson for ICE confirmed they were both taken into custody as part of an ongoing investigation led by Homeland Security...

Alphabet’s Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, a federal judge said on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech titan in an antitrust case brought by the U.S. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, could allow prosecutors to argue for a breakup of Google’s advertising products. The U.S. Department of Justice has said that Google should have to sell off at least its Google Ad Manager, which includes the company’s publisher ad server and its ad exchange. Google will now head in to 2025 facing the possibility of two different U.S. courts...

Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was walking alone Tuesday night to meet friends at a dinner where they would break their 13-hour Ramadan fast when six plainclothes officers suddenly encircled her on the street near her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, surveillance video shows. The 30-year-old shrieked in fear when an officer in a hooded sweatshirt and hat grabbed her by the wrists as another pulled out a concealed badge on a lanyard and confiscated her cell phone. Soon afterward, the swarm of officers who had surrounded her on the sidewalk pulled cloth coverings over their mouths and noses, some...

“Snow White” is pretty much dead now. No friends from the forest can save her. Yesterday, the Disney debacle finished in third place, losing to two new releases, “Working Man” and “The Chosen.” These two are B movies at best, but managed to trounce “Snow White,” which now has just $56 million in the till. Everything about “Snow White” is cursed at this point. Disney’s only shot is to somehow revive the Pasek/Paul songs next winter for the Oscars. But it will probably be too late for that

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize the pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military analysts said. The move could give Russian President Vladimir Putin every reason to delay discussions about pausing the fighting in favor of seeking more land, the Ukrainian officials said, renewing their country’s repeated arguments that Russia has no intention of engaging in meaningful dialogue to end the war.

The State Department has officially notified Congress that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dissolved, and the remaining operations of the agency will be run by the State Department itself. According to United Press International, the State Department officially told Congress that USAID was dissolving on Friday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, "Today, the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have notified Congress on their intent to undertake a reorganization that would involve realigning certain USAID functions to the Department by July 1, 2025, and discontinuing the remaining...

Jesper Steinmetz, a correspondent for Danish channel TV 2, reported that U.S. representatives had gone around "knocking on one door after another" in recent days to ask if they would welcome a visit from Usha Vance. "Everywhere, the answer was the same: no thank you," Steinmetz said. He said that was the reason the plans were changed.

KYIV, Ukraine—It was a scorching summer day in 2014 when Artem Kravchenko and hundreds of other Ukrainian soldiers put their trust in a Russian promise not to open fire and retreated in a column from the surrounded city of Ilovaisk. By the end of the day, Kravchenko found himself lying in a ditch surrounded by dead comrades after Russian forces shot up the column. With three Russian bullets in his body, he had to drink his own urine to survive. “They started shooting from the right, so we went to the left and met another ambush there,” said Kravchenko, who...

MANDAN, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota jury on Wednesday found Greenpeace liable for defamation and other claims brought by a pipeline company in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The nine-person jury awarded Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit had accused Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. of defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts. When asked if Greenpeace plans to appeal, Senior Legal Adviser Deepa Padmanabha said, “We know that this fight is not over.” Padmanabha added that...

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting any noncitizens pursuant to the president's recent proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act. Less than two hours after President Donald Trump attempted to invoke the 18th century law to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens currently in custody pursuant to the president's recent proclamation.

Zelensky's version of the battle of the bulge....

"When Nate heard his cousin, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House’s Oval Office, he flew into a rage. In his camper van, lost on the roads of the American West that he has been crisscrossing since he came back from Ukraine in January 2025, Nate was disappointed. He felt let down by his younger cousin — JD is a few years younger than Nate, who is 47 — whose integrity he had always defended. “JD is a good guy, intelligent,” Nate says. “When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that...

You can see the ridiculous political puppet show for what it really is. They are just actors reading a script.

Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., erupted over Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) while delivering remarks to colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. During a markup of bills related to providing the House with information on DOGE access to Treasury Department payment systems and the Social Security Administration, Larson turned red and shouted at Republican colleagues, "You will do whatever Elon Musk and Donald Trump tell you to do. "Where's the independence of the committee? Where's the legislature? We're an equal branch of government," an enraged Larson yelled, "Look at the empty seats here....

Putin CRUSHES Trump's Ceasefire Trap, Ukraine's Army COLLAPSES in Kursk!My prediction: By 2050 even Wikipedia won't know what the word "ukraine" might have ever meant....

A top political columnist for The Washington Post resigned today, accusing Post chief executive and publisher Will Lewis of killing her column that criticized owner Jeff Bezos's drive to overhaul the opinion pages to focus on his libertarian priorities. Post columnist and Associate Editor Ruth Marcus, who has worked at the paper for four decades, says she can no longer stay there. "Jeff's announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what...

Former U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., linked his 2024 Senate loss to ex-Vice President Kamala Harris’ poor performance in the state. Tester, who lost to former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy in that race, declared on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher" that the woke politics embraced by the top of the ticket are what doomed his performance in Montana. "And the top of the ticket did not perform because I don’t think the top of the ticket embraced the issues that Americans were talking about," he said. "We got wrapped up in all the cancel culture crap." Tester had served...

U.S. satellite mapping company Maxar Technologies has blocked Ukraine's access to its imagery, according to a report by Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi. The publication quotes unnamed users of Maxar's commercial service as saying that the company provided them with an official explanation that the restriction was made "in response to an administrative request." Maxar's reported move could be a consequence of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to stop supplying American military intelligence data to Ukraine. It could be seen as evidence that the ban affects not only state institutions, but also U.S. companies and commercial services providing satellite data...