Free Republic

A blue-collar Democrat running to keep her seat in rural Washington has a secret drug-fueled past filled with kinky fetish parties, nudism and an alleged fondness for nitrous oxide “whippets.” Before Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez took control of Washington’s Trump-friendly 3rd Congressional District outside Portland, she was a budding college politician who presided over a “Latex Fetish Ball,” drugged-up nude frolics and even an LSD giveaway, according to social media posts unearthed by The California Post. Ex-roomies further have alleged that the Dem rising star was once an avid “dumpster diver” who offered spoiled avocados in exchange for rent while...

Being the United States president can be pretty overwhelming. Fortunately for the 44th U.S. President Obama, had basketball to turn to relieve himself of some of the stress. ...Obama played and he played without any reservations. "they didn't adopt any "presidential rules," and he paid for it dearly one time as someone caught him on the mouth and gave him a busted lip. "There ain't no presidential rule?" Stak chimed in. "I got the scars to prove it," Obama bragged. The affable U.S. president said hoops was as much a part of his schedule as meeting diplomats from other countries....

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried Apple’s recent $200 price hikes on computers and tablets, which the tech giant blamed on a memory chip crunch — and called for breaking up Big Tech. “We need to break up a lot of these companies that are far, far too big, and we need to be instituting consumer protections for people,” the New York Democrat told Fox News. Most analysts believe the so-called “RAM-ageddon” crisis is a result of the rapid build-out of data centers to power artificial intelligence, which has turbocharged demand for memory chips. Citing memory chip shortages, Apple jacked...

One of the defining images of 2020 featured two homeowners, two firearms and a confrontation that ignited a national firestorm. Six years later, the legal, political and cultural fallout from that moment continues to reverberate through debates over self-defense, private property rights, public protest and prosecutorial power. On June 28, 2020, as racial justice protests swept cities across America following the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter demonstrators made their way through Portland Place, a private, gated street in St. Louis, toward the home of then-Mayor Lyda Krewson. As the crowd passed through the neighborhood, the McCloskeys emerged from...

Five young Arapaho braves snuck off from Fort Robinson 150 years ago this week and fought the 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn, where General Custer met his demise. They later told their story to actor and adopted member of the Arapaho tribe, Tim McCoy. ============================================================== Left Hand (left) was 22 years old when he snuck away from the agency at Fort Robinson and ended up fighting with the Sioux and Cheyenne in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (Courtesy) They have been dubbed by historians as the Arapaho Five, warriors who found themselves fighting against the cavalry in the Battle...

CNN head Mark Thompson has no interest in sharing “oversight” of his network and has made his position clear to incoming Paramount bosses ahead of an expected $111 billion merger with CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a new report. With the merger looming and reports indicating Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison could hand CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss a major role at CNN, Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin reported in The New York Times that Thompson has made his feelings on the future clear. Thompson has reportedly told Paramount executives that he “would not share oversight of...

The collaboration between director Michael Powell and writer/producer Emeric Pressburger began on the eve of World War Two and built up a considerable head of steam making films for and about that war. Some were obvious propaganda (Contraband, 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft is Missing) while a couple were far too idiosyncratic to match any workable definition of propaganda (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale). Blimp was so at odds with the British government's idea of what aided the war effort that Churchill himself ordered the military not to assist the filmmakers during its production....

A New York City landlord has gone viral for dragging Marxist NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani after he announced a massive rent freeze last week. As The New York Times reported, a New York City panel voted on Thursday to freeze rents for nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. This fulfilled one of Mamdani's prominent campaign promises. The Rent Guidelines Board approved the freeze on both one- and two-year leases in a 7-to-1 vote. Increases were thus paused on more than 40% of all apartments across the five boroughs. The Times revealed that this includes high-rise luxury apartments, deeply affordable subsidized units,...

How Sparta, the most powerful Greek city-state, collapsed in only 20 years. The Decline and Fall of Sparta | 11:02 toldinstone | 627K subscribers | 82,207 views | Febuary 25, 2026Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:38 Classical Sparta 1:29 Spartan politics 2:22 Helots 3:24 Population decline 4:37 Hubris 5:25 The Battle of Leuctra 6:42 Messenia liberated 7:35 Enter Macedon 8:08 Attempts at reform 9:08 Irrelevance 9:37 Roman Sparta

Iranian suicide/loitering drones (kamikaze UAVs) typically have modest payload capacities, in the range of 30–50 kg for the most common types, with some variants or larger models reaching higher. Key Examples Shahed-136 (most prominent, widely exported/used): ~200 kg total weight, payload ~30–50 kg (commonly cited as ~40 kg warhead). Russian variants (Geran-2) have reached ~90 kg in some modified configurations by reducing fuel/range. Shahed-131 (smaller variant): ~10–20 kg payload. Other types like Ababil series or Hadid-110: Often 30–40 kg. Larger systems (e.g., Arash series): Up to ~225–260 kg in some reports, but these are less common for pure "suicide drone"...

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries publicly embraced a new crop of congressional nominees Saturday, including three Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates whose primary victories have fueled fresh debate over the Democratic Party’s leftward shift ahead of the 2026 midterms. The powerful New York lawmaker’s post highlights the challenge facing the top House Democrat as he works to unite his party ahead of the general election. If Democrats take back the House in November, Jeffries is expected to become the next speaker. That means he’ll likely be leading a Democratic caucus with more self-described Democratic Socialists than ever before. So far,...

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville and his podcast co-host Al Hunt lamented a recent primary winner in New York as part of a movement they say does not belong in the Democratic Party. Democratic socialist candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier was one of three candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who won shocking primary victories in New York Tuesday. Hunt suggested on Thursday’s episode of “Politics War Room” that they may “complicate the politically existential question of winning in November.” Carville and Hunt agreed that Republicans are overplaying these three candidates as somehow representing the broader Democratic Party...

The author of a new book about William Shakespeare is claiming that the works of the famed playwright were actually written by a black, Jewish woman. The book, The Real Shakespeare: Emilia Bassano Willoughby by Irene Coslet, argues that Shakespeare was actually Emilia Bassano, a dark-skinned Jewish woman who was an English poet during the Elizabethan period. The Amazon description for the book, which says it is set to be released on March 30, questions if Shakespeare was indeed “a white man from Stratford.” “Debate still rages over the identity of the most beloved poet of all time and ‘father’...

Two juveniles have been arrested after investigators accused them of sparking a devastating six-alarm blaze that tore through an empty Pennsylvania factory before leaping across the street and destroying houses, leaving dozens of people homeless. The two youths, whose names have not been released due to their young ages, are being held on charges including arson, conspiracy, recklessly endangering another person and causing a catastrophe. The arrests came two days after the massive inferno erupted in Allentown, sending towering flames and thick black smoke into the night sky as more than 100 firefighters battled to stop the blaze from swallowing...

The decisive primary sweep by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s left-wing comrades gave Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez such an ego boost that Democratic insiders predict it could spur a White House bid in 2028. The “Squad’s” queen bee may ditch her long-anticipated plot to unseat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for bigger game after three radical Mamdani-backed insurgents running for House seats on Tuesday defeated old-guard Dems, pushing the party even further left, the insiders said. “New York’s clean sweep was a political earthquake that shows voters generally want to shake up the system,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change...

This is a short excerpt on Free Republic's entry in Grokipedia. It far outclasses Wikipedia's perverted, overly long entry. Read the whole entry at the link. I did. And I approve. "Free Republic is a moderated online forum and discussion platform founded in 1996 by Jim Robinson, a private citizen and computer programmer from Fresno, California, serving as a gathering place for self-identified conservatives to post links to news articles and participate in commentary ..."

In 1995, remarkable contents of a 17th-century shipwreck began to be discovered by divers of the South West Maritime Archaeological Group off Salcombe Bay. The finds consist of over 400 gold coins of the Sa'dian Sharifs of Morocco in addition to ingots, jewellery as well as other items including Dutch pewter and pottery subsequently acquired by the British Museum. Although the ship has not survived, the divers discovered remnants of wood, rope and lead that were parts of its infrastructure. The finds from this shipwreck are significant for several reasons: the gold is clearly a bullion hoard and the number...

A Democratic House hopeful vying for one of the nation's most competitive districts is staying silent after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., voiced support for her campaign. Ocasio-Cortez, a leftist firebrand with growing influence in the Democratic Party, congratulated former Biden administration official Cait Conley on her primary victory in a social media post Wednesday. "I look forward to working together as a delegation as we fight for working families across New York," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. The post also celebrated a Democrat vying to succeed retiring Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., alongside three socialist candidates backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani....

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner took shots at incumbent U.S. Sen. Susan Collins while unveiling a series of policies he said would root out fraud, waste and bribery in Washington. At a press event outside Collins’ office, the Sullivan oyster farmer cited recent campaign finance reports showing the five-term Republican has received nearly $10 million from individual billionaires and political action committees to fuel her reelection campaign. According to reporting by the Maine Monitor, the amount billionaires gave in support of Collins is similar to the amount that small-dollar donors — those giving $200 or less — contributed to the...

The orbits of long-period comets suggest a star passed by our Sun and caused some havoc we're still seeing. Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, is a very famous long-period comet. Image Credit: ESO/E. Slawik ================================================================= The closest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, about 4.2 light-years away. This has not always been the case, as all stars in the galaxies move about. Observations suggest that just 2.5 million years ago, there was a star that passed very close to the Solar System, and this passage might still have consequences we can see today. Data from the ESA Gaia...