Free Republic

Sunday is a “clearing the spindle” day, and one of the things on my spindle has been Nate Silver’s prediction last week that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, aka AOC, is currently the most likely person to be the Democrat party’s 2028 presidential candidate. Frankly, I think he’s right. She’s telegenic, has name recognition, and manages to make the same politics that killed tens of millions of people in the 20th century seem user-friendly. She’s also Bernie Sanders’ anointed heir, and he missed the nomination in 2016 and 2020 only because the Democrat party panicked. Last week, Nate Silver, while acknowledging that it’s...

Some arrogant BBC reporter tries to lecture Bukele about “human right” for gang members in El Salvador, after Bukele was elected for his second term. Let's just say it did not end well for the BBC reporter. Trouble with these moronic western legacy media is, they'll do everything possible to defend vicious criminals. Meanwhile, they never run anything in their lives. They just write nonsense every day and get paid for it too. Worth watching.

The acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was replaced Friday, only three days after assuming the role, as his appointment triggered a power struggle between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk of the Department of Government Efficiency, the New York Times reported. Gary Shapley was replaced after Bessent complained to President Donald Trump that Musk circumvented Bessent’s office to secure the position for Shapley, the NYT reported. The outlet cited people who said they were familiar with the situation. Shapley was a longstanding IRS agent who accused the Biden administration’s Department of Justice of dragging out its...

During this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Sunday Morrning Futures,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) offered an optimistic take on the Trump administration’s challenge to the country’s existing birthright citizenship policy currently being considered by the Supreme Court. “Look, Jason, this is a fascinating case,” he said. “It’s a close case. It can be won. No one knows the outcome for sure. But one thing that’s important for everyone to keep in mind, this case is not about whether birthright citizenship exists, nor does it undermine the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship promise. This is, rather, about what the contours of birthright citizenship...

Saturday evening, I published three posts on A.A.R.P. v. Trump. Around midnight eastern time, Justice Alito issued his dissent, which was joined only by Justice Thomas. The dissent begins: "Shortly after midnight yesterday, the Court hastily and prematurely granted unprecedented emergency relief." He is correct. Justice Alito lists seven bullets which demonstrates why this order was problematic. The first bullet argues that it is unclear the Court had jurisdiction: It is not clear that the Court had jurisdiction. The All Writs Act does not provide an independent grant of jurisdiction. See 28 U. S. C. §1651(a) (permitting writs "necessary or...

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Trump administration was showing it did “not care about the rule of law.” Partial transcript as follows: FORMER RNC CHAIR REINCE PRIEBUS: They’ve got no — well, he said they’ve got no message. They’ve got no movement. They’ve got no leader. I mean, it doesn’t get any worse than that. I mean, you’re defending Harvard. You’re traveling to El Salvador for MS-13 gang members. But here’s the point. KARL: Alleged. PRIEBUS: You’re taking $20 million, if I’m looking at someone, my vice chair, the RNC...

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Robert F. Stryker Info from here. Robert F. Stryker (November 9, 1944-November 7, 1967) was a United States Army soldier received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War. He is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery Throop, New York. The Army Stryker vehicle is named in his and PFC Stuart S. Stryker's honor. Rank and organization: Specialist Four, U.S. Army, Company C,...

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen on a second Signal group chat that included his wife, lawyer and brother, three people familiar with the chat told CNN.The revelation comes as some of Hegseth’s closest advisers have begun sounding the alarm about the secretary’s judgment, including his former press secretary, John Ullyot, and three former senior officials Hegseth fired last week — his top adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, who served as chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense.

The most popular Easter service in this capital of alternative living occurs not in church but on the sloping lawns of Dolores Park, where thousands show up in their Sunday best — which at the annual Hunky Jesus Contest can mean steampunk bonnets, a life-size Peep suit or, for those competing, elaborate (and usually scanty) Jesus and Mary costumes.

Tennessee swindlers forged the signatures of unsuspecting homeowners on deeds to transfer the property ownership for a measly $10 in a quit-claim scheme. Stuart Breakstone and his accomplice, Rebecca Tuttle, allegedly played out their ruse on at least two separate residences in Memphis, Tenn., between 2010 and 2025, property records viewed by The Post show. The duo is accused of faking signatures of the homeowners, buyers and at least one notary on quit-claim forms to transfer the ownership of the properties for $10 ... The sleazy scheme was only discovered after a homeowner reported to police that she was no...

Two Mexican nationals were arrested in Colorado last month after authorities found them transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition during a traffic stop, federal officials have announced. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, were pulled over on March 26th in Cañon City, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. Detectives from Fremont County stopped their white Chevrolet van after it failed to dim its headlights, didn’t signal a turn, and had a broken license plate light, according to an arrest affidavit.

I live near this event (The April 19th Reenactment of the encounter between Colonials and the British at the Old North Bridge) but had only gone to it once before many years ago, and it was rainy with no visibility of the event due to crowd size. I determined it wasn't worth going to again until this anniversary. I thought this would be something I should go to. In 1976, the 200 Year Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I had no opportunity to see any of it because I was an E2 Airman Apprentice doing Scullery Duty in the...

The ongoing soap opera that is Elon Musk’s love life and world repopulation effort again took center stage on Wednesday as The Wall Street Journal detailed his drama-laden relationship with Ashley St. Clair and other women who have borne his children.Dana Mattioli, the article’s author, largely takes a naive and sympathetic view of St. Clair, who gave birth to Musk’s child Romulus, while painting Musk as the villain. Not that anyone in the legacy media is particularly interested in chastity or biblical morality, but rather Musk’s shift to the right has made him a favorite punching bag of leftists, and...

At 1:00am on Saturday, the Supreme Court of the USA issued an injunction [SEE HERE] blocking President Trump from deporting illegal aliens identified under the Alien Enemies Act. It was/is a bizarre order considering the lower court had not even ruled on the matter; worse yet, the Supreme Court created an imaginary “class” of aliens. Any illegal alien who happens to also be a gang member, or illegal alien who would ‘smartly’ now claim to be a gang member, is ultimately the beneficiary of a Supreme Court order blocking their removal or deportation. That’s how judicially insane this injunction is.As...

The Trump administration responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily block the deportation of illegal immigrant gang members by releasing the criminal records of several individuals alleged to be members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA). The gang members in question are being held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas and had been slated for removal from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The administration has argued that the law, which grants the president authority to deport nationals of hostile foreign nations, should be applied to gang members after President Donald...

L.A.'s fragile urban canopy was dealt a vicious blow this weekend when a chainsaw-wielding vandal cut down a number of shade trees along South Grand Avenue and other areas of downtown, according to media posts and photos uploaded to Reddit and Instagram. The Los Angeles Police Department told The Times it had no information about the tree destruction, and an email and phone call to the city's Urban Forestry Division went unanswered Sunday.

Chinese airlines have begun returning Boeing aircraft to the U.S., with one 737 Max recently landing back at a Boeing production hub in Seattle over the weekend, according to Reuters. Saturday’s return occurred shortly after China ordered its airlines not to take further deliveries of Boeing aircraft in response to the U.S. imposing 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, Bloomberg News reported last week. A trio of 737 Max 8 jets that were originally being readied at Boeing’s Zhoushan delivery center for two Chinese airlines were recalled to the U.S. last week, according to aviation news service The Air Current, citing...

*** For decades, American institutions of higher education have benefited from extraordinary taxpayer largesse. Federal government grants and other forms of direct taxpayer subsidizations of universities are legion. The federal government itself also has a near-monopoly on the market for economically ruinous student loans -- the very loans that are themselves disproportionately responsible for abetting the modern four-year college's misbegotten status as a necessary rite of passage to achieve the American dream. Capital gains of major university endowments are also taxed at the miniscule rate of 1.4% -- a fraction of the taxation rate to which the endowments would be...

Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Francis at the pontiff’s residence in Rome on Sunday, the Vatican said, in a previously unannounced visit during Easter celebrations.The Vatican said the meeting was a “brief” exchange of Easter wishes that lasted “a few minutes.” In a photograph released by the Vatican, the pope is seated in a wheelchair opposite Mr. Vance as the pair talk.The meeting came after the pope criticized the Trump administration’s deportation policies and urged Catholics to reject anti-immigrant narratives, in an unusually direct attack on the American government.The rebuke came in the form of an open letter...

New York Attorney General Letitia James didn’t just misclassify her five-unit Brooklyn brownstone as a “4-family dwelling” on mortgage documents. As we’ve previously reported, this distinction is not trivial—properties with five or more units are considered commercial and subject to stricter lending rules. But our latest investigation reveals something even more troubling: on multiple occasions, James described the property as a “1-family,” “1–2 family,” or even “1–3 family” dwelling—designations that offer even greater mortgage advantages than the 4-family classification, including lower interest rates, reduced reserve requirements, and easier approval thresholds. This isn’t a minor paperwork discrepancy. Five-unit buildings are classified...