Free Republic

Is this the real-life Atlantis. A 90-foot “pyramid” submerged just off the coast of Japan is turning heads — and could shake up everything we thought we knew about ancient civilizations. Sitting 82 feet below sea level near the Ryukyu Islands, the Yonaguni Monument has baffled scientists and divers since it was first discovered in 1986. The enormous stone structure, complete with angular steps and flat terraces, looks uncannily like the ruins of a man-made temple — despite being over 10,000 years old. That timeline, if proven accurate, would date it thousands of years earlier than Egypt’s pyramids or England’s...

The 250th Anniversary of "The Shot Heard 'round The World" is upon us. Any plans you have to celebrate The Battle of Lexington and Concord? This is a bucket list item for me and I plan to be there, celebrating the many kinfolk who took part that day. There were many precusror events to the American Revolution but this is the event where the die was cast. If July 4, 1776 was the birth of our nation, this was the conception.

Long before Karen, there was Nanni. (Geni/Wikimedia Commons) ****************************************************************** Almost 4,000 years ago, a Mesopotamian man named Nanni was so disappointed with the copper he bought from a trader named Ea-nāṣir, that he decided to write a formal complaint. Today, this Bronze Age clay tablet is the oldest customer complaint we know of – and it's a doozy. Writing and trade have an inseparable history. Some of the oldest surviving examples of written language are stocktakes and ledgers recorded in the ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform script. Since copper is a key ingredient in the very bronze the age was named for,...

The Taraia Object is the commonly used name for a visual anomaly in the lagoon of Nikumaroro Island in the south Pacific Ocean. Its location is alongside the Taraia Peninsula, which projects southwestward from the north side of the lagoon. The Object is visible in satellite images, aerial photos, drone footage, and video footage of the lagoon. Its location is directly east of the Tatiman Passage, which connects the lagoon to the open ocean. (Satellite image)

On January 20, 2025, President Trump began his second term, having won the electoral vote and the popular vote, but in the next two months, his administration experienced an unprecedented 132 legal challenges by liberal judges. Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer explained his strategy in a PBS interview, March 21, 2025: “We did put 235 judges—progressive judges … last year on the bench, and they are ruling against Trump time after time after time.” Justin Evan Smith, writing for The Federalist, March 21, 2025: “Judge Boasberg’s ruling is just the latest example of a judge substituting his own political...

Early on the morning of Oct. 28, 1925, Kate heard gunshots in the direction of the pond on her land. It was not an unusual incident, as duck hunters often frequented the area near the pond, despite the “No Hunting” signs Kate had staked around the pond on posts. Kate’s common practice was to saddle her horse and pack her .22 rifle after the gunshots ceased, and ride to the pond to collect the dead fowl left behind by the hunters. This day was no different. After Kate saddled her horse and packed her rifle, Ernie, who was then 3,...

Today I would like to highlight the release of a book written by Charles A. Goodrich: Great Events in the History of North and South America https://librivox.org/great-events-in-the-history-of-north-and-south-america-by-charles-goodrich/This book ought to be highly useful for home schoolers, it is nearly 90 sections of audio covering a much more generalized education than a deep-dive into one single person or historical event. Many of the audio sections are short in length in the 5-10 minute range, and while the book mentions both North America and South America, 75%~ of the book is North America and almost half of it is the American Revolution...

Former Biden White House adviser Susan Rice went on MSNBC to proclaim the Trump Administration's Signal group chat on the Houthi air strike "the biggest national security debacle that any national security advisor can remember. The pure laziness, malpractice, recklessness of the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA Director and others is bizarre." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth questioned Rice's remarks, saying "I think most normal people would consider the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 the biggest national security debacle. Over 2,400 people were killed by a massive Japanese air...

13,700 additional pages release an hour ago.

A Republican lawmaker is demanding that the man responsible for leaking President Donald Trump’s tax returns in 2019 testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Responsible for one of the largest data breaks in the Internal Revenue Service’s history, the ex-IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for leaking the tax documents of roughly 400,000 wealthy Americans – including Trump – to media outlets in 2019 and 2020. Littlejohn’s short sentence results from the DOJ charging him with only one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax information and then offering a plea deal, which Republicans blasted as...

Hard to believe more than a quarter-century later the brutal Columbine massacre is still claiming victims: Anne Marie Hochhalter, a Columbine survivor, died last month at the age of 43. We are now learning her death is being ruled a homicide because of complications from her being shot in the mass shooting in 1999. The death of a woman who was partially paralyzed in the Columbine High School shooting has been ruled a homicide, raising the death toll of the 1999 attack to 14. Anne Marie Hochhalter died Feb. 16 of sepsis — an extreme reaction to infection — and...

The hollowing out of U.S. cities’ office and commercial cores is a national trend with serious consequences for millions of Americans. As more people have stayed home following the COVID-19 pandemic, foot traffic has fallen. Major retail chains are closing stores, and even prestigious properties are having a hard time retaining tenants. The shuttering of a Whole Foods market after only a year in downtown San Francisco in May 2023 received widespread coverage. Even more telling was the high-end department store Nordstrom’s decision to close its flagship store there in August after a 35-year run. In New York City, office...

Images of "Enola Gay," the aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan are among those targeted by the U.S. military in an initiative to eliminate content related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). They are among a number of photos unrelated to DEI that have been mistakenly flagged, including those from an Army Corps of Engineers dredging project in California, seemingly because an engineer in the image had the last name "Gay." Why It Matters The military is set to remove thousands of photos and online posts in the DEI purge following an executive order issued by...

Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that President Donald Trump’s tariff plans for Canada were the “dumbest” in history. Freeland said, “There have been more flip-flops than we can keep track of here in Canada. But what we do know is, you know, the prime minister is right the Wall Street Journal is right, these are the dumbest tariffs in history. This is utterly self-mutilating. It’s really a perverse approach, Anderson, because America is hurting itself, moving in this direction.” She continued, “The president is killing the U.S. stock market. Your stock...

Five months after Hurricane Helene severed a critical Appalachian freight corridor, a 12-mile stretch of Interstate 40 through North Carolina’s Pigeon River Gorge reopened Saturday. Though still a construction zone, the highway is mostly operational. Its four lanes have been reduced to two, with the roadway held together by nails drilled deep into the mountainside. Tractor-trailers now thread between 9-inch concrete barriers as engineers continue their work. Reopening that stretch of I-40 restores a vital freight corridor that supports both regional industries and national supply chains. Before Hurricane Helene washed out a 4-mile stretch of I-40 connecting North Carolina and...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s behavior during White House visit on Friday as “unacceptable” and “one of the great diplomatic own goals in history,” underscoring the deepening rift between Washington and Kyiv. “It’s very difficult to do an economic deal with a leader who doesn’t want to do a peace deal,” Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, following a contentious Oval Office meeting that derailed a planned agreement granting the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals. The collapse of the deal marks a setback for Ukraine as it sought to deepen economic ties with...

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world. Many of those changes are now part of everyday life. Medical experts say there’s still more to learn from this new normal and COVID’s impact five years later. Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the pandemic, medical experts shared their thoughts, including where public health stands now “We are better today, better as a society, better as health care professionals and we’re more aware of the factors that prevent our patients from getting good health care and focused on changing those factors,” said Dr. Amit Sachdev, Neurology...

Palestinian "nationhood" and Fun with Flags (thanks, Sheldon Cooper)

WASHINGTON – Legendary golfer Tiger Woods joined President Donald Trump Thursday for a Black History Month celebration at the White House. Woods, sporting the Presidential Medal of Freedom Trump awarded him during his first term, entered the East Room with the President as “Hail to the Chief” played. Woods delivered a few remarks at the urging of the president and the crowd, who chanted “Tiger! Tiger!” repeatedly.

After more than 100 years in business, the flagship Neiman Marcus store in Downtown Dallas is closing. News of the closure broke Tuesday when the company’s new owners announced they were being forced to close the landmark location. Saks Global acquired the Dallas-based luxury brand last year.