Free Republic

Students attending American public schools are struggling. Test scores from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released this year, indicate that 33% of 8th graders—a greater percentage than ever before—are reading at the “below basic” level.Additionally, only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or above in math, down from 24% in 2019, and only 35% are proficient in reading—the lowest score since NAEP began in 1969—down from 37% in 2019. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared to all previous assessments.Parents across the country, especially in big cities, have...

For nearly a century, America’s military strength has come largely through self-reliance. We not only made the ships, airplanes and tanks, our country supplied the parts and materials for these complex systems. But a lot has changed in recent times.Unfortunately, our military has increasingly relied on sourcing parts globally -- including from possibly unreliable places like China. It’s a disastrous side effect of globalization.For example, while modern jet engines may typically include between 30,000 and 50,000 parts, ensuring they are “China-free” has proven to be incredibly difficult. We’ve already seen deliveries of F-35s delayed over this issue, revealing that supply...

UPDATE 8:41 CST: President Trump just addressed the nation from Mar-A Lago🚨@POTUS: “I can report tonight that based on the best available information, the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was FLOWN IN by the Biden Administration in in September 2021, on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.” pic.twitter.com/KjLVnwEt7f— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 27, 2025..."Nobody knew who was coming in, knew anything about it! And his status was extended by legislation signed by Biden”He said the suspect had...

We're learning more about the suspect in the terrorist attack that took place earlier in Washington, D.C., that sent two members of the West Virginia National Guard to the hospital, where they are listed as being in critical condition.The attack, which investigators are describing as a targeted ambush, reportedly took place just blocks from the White House, around 2:15 pm Eastern time.As we previously reported, D.C. Metro Police Department Executive Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll told reporters during a D.C. presser that "At approximately 2:15 this afternoon, members of the National Guard were on high visibility patrols in the area of...

Trust is like a bridge built over years but burned in moments. For generations, American parents have walked their children across that bridge each morning, delivering them into the care of teachers and administrators who promised to guard them like their own. But what happens when the guardians become the very danger parents sought to protect their children from? Across Colorado, that bridge is collapsing. School districts that once partnered with families in raising children have transformed into ideological fortresses, operating in shadows and silence. Parents send permission slips for field trips, imagining museums and monuments. They pack lunches and...

Democrats: Trump is a nazi and threat to democracy! *leftist tries to kiII him* Democrats: Charlie Kirk is a nazi and threat to democracy! *leftist kiIIs him* Democrats: The National Guard are nazis and threat to democracy! *leftist tries to kiII them* It’s so obvious what they’re doing.

Remarks, read as thinly veiled critique of government, come amid public spat with Defense Minister Israel Katz over latter's selective promotion of senior IDF officers. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir said Wednesday that Israel needs 'courageous, transformative' leadership that does not 'evade' responsibility, in remarks that seemed to be a thinly veiled criticism of the government. The comments came amid a public spat with Defense Minister Israel Katz over the military October 7 investigations and senior appointments in the Israel Defense Forces. They were delivered during a ceremony commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the death of Israel's...

Mayorkas claims repeatedly for almost three minutes that all the Afghans were vetted before being brought to America. At the 2:45 mark he is reminded that he is under oath and he then goes from claiming that they were all vetted to saying that he has no idea if any were vetted.Grok Summary of AI-Generated Video TranscriptIn a Senate hearing, a senator questioned Alejandro Mayorkas about the vetting process during the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation. The senator repeatedly asked how many of the evacuees were vetted and screened by U.S. officials before boarding planes (specifically C-17s) to the United States. Mayorkas...

At least one Republican senator has said that the U.S. government cannot afford a Trump administration proposal to send out $2,000 tariff-derived rebate payments. “If we’re bringing in revenue through the tariffs, that ought to be applied to reduce the deficit, not just to make cash payments to Americans,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Monday. Bartiromo then told him: “It sounds like you would vote ‘no’ in terms of $2,000 checks going to individuals.” He added that “we can’t afford it” and that he wishes the U.S. government was “in a position to return the...

United States District Court Judge Cameron M. Currie, sitting by designation in the Eastern District of Virginia, yesterday dismissed the federal indictments against former FBI Director James B. Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James. At the crux of the court order is the judge’s finding that President Donald J. Trump’s administration unlawfully appointed Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. Attorney who signed the Comey and James indictments. Taking the now familiar TDS cheap shot, the court order opens with a description of the U.S. Attorney as “a former White House aide with no prior prosecutorial experience.” Attorney General Pamela J....

President Donald Trump says the alleged shooter of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., entered the United States from Afghanistan in 2021 and asks for Americans to pray for the victims.

As the US Navy remains primed for action in the Southern Caribbean, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro prepares for what could be an American attempt to remove him. And as President Trump alternates between calling Maduro on the phone and authorizing air strikes, a bevy of misinformation is being peddled by public figures with an agenda. There are so many claims and counter-claims on the air waves right now that it’s difficult to separate fact from fiction. A sizable chunk of this disinformation is of course being sold by Maduro himself, a man who has learned from his predecessor and mentor,...

President Trump is standing behind his most trusted negotiator, Steve Witkoff, following the leak of a phone call with a senior Russian official, which Ukraine’s backers have criticized for what they see as the special envoy’s attempts to sabotage American support for Kyiv and broker a deal favorable to Moscow.It’s the latest twist over a chaotic week in which the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes dealmaking between Russia and Ukraine has spurred both optimism and questions about progress toward peace.This includes the leak last week of a 28-point plan for ending Russia’s war that was heavily criticized as hewing to Moscow’s maximalist...

1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing! 3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.~ Psalm 100 (KJV) ~ The FReeper Canteen Presents...

President Trump just gave a brief address to the nation regarding the National Guard shootings. The address is just under 5 minutes in length.

A federal security officer linked to a thwarted Jan. 6 pipe bomb attack cleared her name by providing an alibi: video of her playing with her puppies at the time the devices were placed, sources told CBS News. The FBI has now ruled her out as a suspect in the 2021 plot, according to three sources — but only after her name circulated on social platforms and a conservative news site. How an innocent woman's name came to be publicly linked to the unexploded pipe bombs is a question that has raised concerns among some senior officials in the Trump...

Two National Guard soldiers were shot in the head just yards from the White House during a possible terror attack by a lone gunman identified as an Afghan national. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the alleged gunman in custody over the horror shoot-out at Farragut West metro station in the center of Washington, DC, which has left two soldiers in a critical condition. Law enforcement sources initially told NBC News the gunman has been identified as an Afghan national and the shooting is being investigated as a possible act of terror. He allegedly came to the United States...

“62% of [Somali men in Denmark] are convicted of a violent crime by the age of 30.” Absolutely insane. A randomly selected male Somali immigrant is probably a *convicted* violent criminal (or will become one). Why would any country import such a population?

The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House Wednesday afternoon has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal by law enforcement officials, according to multiple news outlets.

CBS News: Multiple law enforcement officials say the suspect in the shooting of National Guard members in Washington, D.C. today is 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, noting he entered the U.S. in 2021