Free Republic

This past week was the 57th anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a young woman who somehow found herself in a cardriven by a drunk who just happened to be the brother of a dead president. Most people born after 1980 really have no idea who she was, unless they have an interest in ancient pop culture. Tragically, that is what Mary Jo, a Pennsylvania native, has become to so many: An asterisk in the larger narrative of the so-called “Lion of the Senate.” To me, this pro-abortion womanizer was much more of a jackal, but I’m one...

New York State Attorney General Letitia James hammers conservative outfits over paperwork errors, but look how kind she is when the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a political ally, flouts state charity and elections law. CAIR and related entity CAIR Action jumped into New York Democratic primaries in June to endorse and fundraise for a host of anti-Zionist candidates, including the victorious Darieliza Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander and Claire Valdez. Setting aside CAIR’s links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, this would be normal political activity — except that CAIR Action NY, though registered federally as a 501(c)(4), never registered with...

Around 80 million years ago, a stretch of tropical coastline in what is now north-eastern Italy was lashed by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Those storms swept dinosaur carcasses, crocodiles, plants and river mud onto a tidal flat, where the tides and a film of microbes sealed everything away with extraordinary preservation.My colleagues and I have published a new study that reconstructs the violent tropical climate behind the Villaggio del Pescatore Lagerstätte near Trieste and reveals it preserves just four decades of life, recorded almost day by day. The Villaggio del Pescatore site near Trieste is one of the most...

Sen. Bernie Sanders insisted that he has no regrets about his initial stance standing by disgraced oyster farmer Graham Platner despite an avalanche of warning signs. Sanders (I-Vt.) had been among Platner’s earliest backers, catapulting him to prominence with his endorsement shortly after the oyster farmer jumped in the race for Maine’s Senate seat. “No, I don’t think so,” Sanders told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday when asked about whether he had regrets for not abandoning Platner sooner. The self-described democratic socialist had stuck with Platner during a string of scandals, defending him after revelations emerged that he...

For almost four decades, I did expert witness testimony in wrongful death cases. The purpose of such testimony is often to place an affected party in a position of financial indifference between a "before" and "after" event. It's the same premise for black reparations. Most enslaved Africans brought to the United States came from Senegambia and west-central Africa, including present-day Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Gabon. I did a calculation that compared wages in these countries today and compared them to current black wages in the US. I then did a present value...

I am asking your help. I will only see this movie if I am convinced that it's worth my three hours of time and money. THEREFORE, I am relying on my fellow Free Republic friends, WHO HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE, to give me their unabridged opinion. 1. 1 to 4 stars, how many stars would you give the movie? 2. Do you recommend the movie? Yes or No? 3. Any comments.

After 13 days of bombing Iran, on Friday we took a break. If we were dealing with rational opponents, the war in Iran would be over now, but we are dealing with fanatics and a situation where the monsters are fighting each other, and no one seems sufficiently in charge to enter into a meaningful surrender. In the meantime, we can turn to domestic matters, and to my mind, the situation at the Smithsonian Museum warrants our attention. It seems that we are paying super-woke people to denigrate our history and culture, and because of the way in which the...

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was dealt a major legal blow Friday after a federal judge gutted key state laws providing in-state tuition, financial aid and scholarships to illegal immigrants, marking another win for the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration agenda. US District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Trump appointee serving in the Southern District of Illinois, sided with the Justice Department, ruling that Illinois’ in-state tuition policies, the RISE Act and the Illinois DREAM Act are “unconstitutional and invalid” as they apply to illegal immigrants. The ruling permanently prevents Illinois from enforcing the laws, although McGlynn delayed the order from taking effect...

**SNIP** Now another person with close ties to Swalwell appears to be using his campaign account like a personal slush fund. That's Adam Gray, who was co-chair of Swalwell's failed gubernatorial campaign. Gray, who was once a member of the California Assembly, had a reputation in the state legislature for taking charter flights and staying at luxury resorts. When he was elected to Congress, he reportedly kept living large, running up campaign expenses for limousine services, Uber rides, and more than $16,000 on Major League Baseball (MLB) tickets. FEC documents show that Gray's campaign spent more than $5,000 on limousine...

How do you spelling "winning"? US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster brutally roasted the redcoats in a patriotic post taking aim at the United Kingdom to celebrate America's 250th birthday. "Why is it 'cancelled' in the U.K. but 'canceled' in the U.S.?" the nation's oldest dictionary publisher wrote on X. "Because we gave them that L in 1776." The post had garnered more than 12 million views and over 2,400 replies as of Saturday morning — with many cheering the Independence Day smackdown. "Solid burn from the dictionary!!!" one wrote. "Imagine getting roasted by a book of words. The disrespect is off...

Hundreds of lefty demonstrators marched through downtown Madison, Wisconsin, spewing anti-cop venom, stopping traffic and harassing diners as they protested the killing of Corey Ruiz, a career criminal who allegedly stabbed a police officer with a knife before being shot. Nearly 500 people marched from the intersection of Williamson Street and South Baldwin Street — where the 38-year-old was shot three times on Wednesday during a struggle with several police officers — to the Madison Police Department headquarters on Friday. Video showed some demonstrators stopping traffic and confronting at a female motorist who insisted she was an “ally” during a...

LANSING, Mich. (News 10) — The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that police can no longer use the smell of marijuana as the sole justification for a warrantless vehicle search. In a 5-2 decision in No. 165764, People of Michigan v Devante Kyran Jennings,, the court found that odor alone does not establish probable cause that a criminal amount of cannabis is present in a vehicle. Read more about the case and find the court’s opinion here. What changed after legalization Since Michigan voters approved a change to state law in 2018, possessing less than five ounces of marijuana is...

Barry Levinson's 1982 film Diner is set in Baltimore at the end of 1959, in the final days of what had been a momentous year, and just before what would be a pivotal decade. The year had begun with the success of the Cuban revolution and its recognition by both the US and Soviet governments, and Barry Gordy's founding of Motown. Pope John XXIII announced the Second Vatican Council and Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Iowa. Later in the year China abolished the Tibetan government and replaced the Dalai Lama, NASA...

Nearly 2,000 years after it was first built, we're discovering just how ingenious Roman central heating really was. For eight days, a team of volunteers heated our reconstructed Roman hypocaust continuously. This was an experiment to find out what temperatures can be achieved, how long does the system take to get up to temperature and how long does the system retain the temperature once the fire has been extinguished. Our hypocaust is based on archaeological evidence from the remarkable Sparsholt Roman Villa, located around 6 km NW of Winchester, England. The excavation was one of the earliest Roman villas in...

Her DNA search results went helter-skelter. Filmmaker Sophia Maddox broke down in tears when she and her father, Daniel Arguelles, learned from an online ancestry search that his dad was one of America’s most notorious criminals — Charles Manson. “I was obviously very devastated,” Maddox, 26, exclusively told The Post. She recalled feeling “dumbstruck” and “sobbing.” “My dad was just rubbing my back and holding me, and telling me we were nothing like him. But it was a little traumatic,” she added. Co-directed by Maddox and Alexandra Orton, the Hulu documentary, “My Grandfather Charles Manson,” follows Maddox as she looks...

WASHINGTON — Democrats took a big step Friday toward making South Carolina the first state to hold its presidential primary in the 2028 cycle, potentially handing former Vice President Kamala Harris a big early advantage should she launch a third White House bid. The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws panel gave the Palmetto State the nod to go first with 26 votes, followed by Nevada (19 votes) and longtime first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire (4 votes). Friday’s committee vote is expected to be approved next month by the full DNC, formalizing the calendar. Democratic activists had pushed hard in...

The owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant in South Korea is facing up to a year in jail and a fine of roughly $13,510 after the eatery allegedly served ants atop its sorbets. The proprietor of the Seoul restaurant, not identified in court documents, acknowledged serving ants, which are not among the insect species approved for human consumption under South Korea’s Food Sanitation Act. The law approves 10 other insect species for human consumption — but not ants, the BBC reported. The country’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety discovered the violation through customers’ social media posts and online reviews mentioning...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is telling New Yorkers to take to the streets to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits the Big Apple — and it has NYPD cops fuming. New York’s Finest just put in superhuman duty to keep the five boroughs safe during the FIFA World Cup, the Knicks NBA title, Independence Day and a massive America 250 celebration that brought millions into the city — and now will have to keep their guards up as the lefty mayor fans the flames. “The mayor’s activist posturing puts police officers on the street in a terrible position,”...

In the heart of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, a city over 5,000 years old lay dormant beneath the sands. Thanks to excavations led by an international team, this ancient city is about to be reborn in the light of the present. Led for over ten years by Italian archaeologist Gabriele Rossi Osmida, this research has revealed the existence of a mysterious culture: the Oasis Civilization. These cities, spread along an ancient trade route between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, bear witness to a refined and organized people, connected to the other great cultures of the time: Mesopotamia, Elam, and the Indus...

Painting depicting Odysseus and his crew at their ship (Odysseus tied to the mast), while Sirens are around them. John William Waterhouse, Ulysses and the Sirens (1891). Did this voyage take Odysseus to America? Credit: Public Domain For centuries, scholars and enthusiasts have debated where Odysseus truly traveled during his legendary journey back to Ithaca. Among the most intriguing theories is the notion that the hero ventured beyond the Mediterranean, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and reached the shores of what is now known as America. But what evidence supports this extraordinary claim, and does it truly align with Homer’s descriptions...