Free Republic

In late April 2026, Maine Governor Janet Mills suspended her campaign for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, effectively handing the race to Graham Platner, a 41-year-old Marine veteran and purported oyster farmer.Platner now stands as the presumptive Democrat nominee against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.The development itself is unremarkable in the rough-and-tumble of primary politics.What demands scrutiny is not the candidate’s past, but the cognitive mechanism by which that past has been processed, reframed, and ultimately laundered by his party. Platner acquired a prominent chest tattoo in 2007 while on leave in Croatia with fellow Marines. The image, a skull...

In the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that curtailed states’ ability to prohibit so-called “conversion therapy” outright, Colorado lawmakers are advancing a bill to deter the practice through civil liability rather than direct bans. The proposal, House Bill 26-1322, would allow people who say they were subjected to conversion therapy to sue licensed mental health providers, as well as those who employ or supervise them, with no statute of limitations, according to the bill’s text. Lawmakers say that change reflects the reality that many survivors do not come forward until years, sometimes decades, after the harm. The...

"It's the best job, because I'm a celebrity around all of it, but no one knows me. It's like winning the lottery," he said. Regarding his use of the Fox corporate card, Hermes indicated: "You could take this [Fox credit card], walk into a strip club, literally, and spend $4,000. Go to your corporate manager and they will sign it and pay it off … 'Well that's what the client wanted.'" When asked if the practice involved clients or hosts, he replied: "No, we would just do it ourselves and lie on the expense reports. No one asks a question...

Why do we seem to hate each other so much here in the United States? Why do so many people seem obsessed with conspiracies, steeped in anger, and ready to spend large segments of their day fulminating on the internet about people they don’t know, on topics that they know nothing about? There’s a simple answer: Our institutions are failing. Trust in American institutions—in the media, in church, in the scientific establishment, in government and, of course, in academia—is at an all-time low. And because of our lack of trust in institutions, Americans also mistrust one another. You might think...

On Monday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) said that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is “about how it comes from our leaders. When people talk about destroying civilizations or calling people name[s], normalizing all of these things, we should not be doing that.” Rosen said, “I can tell you that he always turns everything to himself. And this is not about a ballroom or an auditorium or any place at all. It is about how people in the public sphere treat each other, how they talk to each other.” She added that...

How Trump Is Running the Most Aggressive Geopolitical Play in a Generation—and Why It Has to Be This Way From 1973 to 1977 the National Hockey League was the wild west, and Bob “Gasser” Gassoff—a 5’10”, 190-pound wrecking ball who skated for the St. Louis Blues—was one of the best enforcers in the game. His job was not to score. It was to protect the players who did. High-stick, slash, board or manhandle a Blues skill player and Gasser would drop the gloves and answer the bell, over and over, until somebody turtled or a referee had the stones to...

“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou If there is one thing that leftists are adept at doing, it is projecting who they are upon others, namely, their political opposition. How often have we had to endure the incessant droning of these maniacal totalitarians castigating everyone else as fascists, authoritarians and threats to democracy? It only takes one reading of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto to show you who these leftists are, along with a study of their history, in order for anyone to believe who they are. But, just in case there...

Four hundred inquiries from American farmers poured in after a single interview. Not for a John Deere. Not for a Case IH. For a tractor built in Alberta with a remanufactured 1990s diesel engine and zero electronics. Ursa Ag, a small Canadian manufacturer, is assembling tractors powered by 12-valve Cummins engines — the same mechanically injected workhorses that powered combines and pickup trucks decades ago — and selling them for roughly half the price of comparable machines from established brands. The 150-horsepower model starts at $129,900 CAD, about $95,000 USD. The range-topping 260-hp version runs $199,900 CAD, around $146,000. Try...

Summary: During the period of the Revolution, slavery was much closer to being banned in America than most people realize.

A section of central London has been closed off, with emergency services in “biohazard suits” seen investigating after an Iran-linked group claimed to have used drones to deliver “radioactive and carcinogenic materials” into the Israeli embassy. Specialist officers combed Kensington Gardens, onto which the Israeli embassy backs, on Friday over “discarded items” found in the park overnight that came as an Iran-linked group claimed it had launched an attack. The park was closed to the public with “hazardous” signs hung on the shut iron gates, and officers from the Metropolitan Police Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) response team in...

A 20-year-old Texas man who allegedly firebombed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco referenced Luigi Mangione, who is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The suspect, Daniel Moreno-Gama allegedly traveled from Texas to California with several weapons, a Molotov cocktail, and a manifesto in which he railed against artificial intelligence. He believed the technology poses an existential threat. The San Francisco District Attorney’s office in a press release said the suspect is facing multiple felony charges connected to the attack.

There is a difference between dissent and sabotage. Between principled skepticism and strategic subversion. And increasingly, that line is being tested—not by the political Left, but by what can only be described as a counter-MAGA Fifth Column operating within the right itself. At a moment when the United States is engaged in active military operations to destroy the escalating threat from the Iranian regime—one that has openly pursued nuclear capability, funded proxy terrorism, and targeted American interests abroad—there has emerged a chorus of influential voices whose messaging consistently runs counter to the Trump administration’s interests. Figures like Tucker Carlson, Candace...

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas used a speech at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law on Thursday to contend that progressivism has increasingly conflicted with the principles of the Declaration of Independence, telling students that the movement cannot permanently coexist with the founding ideals of natural rights and limited government...

Iconic Leftist Hampshire College Permanently Closing at End of the Year “Despite pursuing a financial sustainability plan and raising more than $55 million through its Change in the Making campaign, efforts in enrollment growth, debt refinancing and land development did not yield a viable path forward.” The trustees of Hampshire College have voted to close the school after the fall semester of 2026. This marks the end of a process that began a few years ago when the school began to face the possibility of such a decision. Located in central Massachusetts, Hampshire College is a progressive institution that makes...

April is sexually transmitted infection (STI) Awareness Month, and with it brings renewed attention to these infections. One issue that is rapidly escalating beyond routine public health messaging: antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Once considered a straightforward infection to diagnose and cure, gonorrhea is evolving into a far more serious challenge—particularly for men. Experts now caution that this shift demands a reframing of the conversation, recognizing resistant gonorrhea not just as a general public health concern, but as a growing men’s health crisis with unique risks and consequences. At the center of this concern is the speed at which gonorrhea has adapted to...

A GOP senator who voted to convict President Donald Trump accused the Republican establishment of not pouring enough money into his already cash-rich reelection campaign, Punchbowl News reported Friday. Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy is set to face voters for the first time since his vote following Trump’s second impeachment, as he competes against Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming in a brutal May 16 GOP primary.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval rating stands at 47 percent two months into the Democrat’s term, with 46 percent of voters disapproving and 7 percent expressing no opinion in a Washington Post-Schar School poll. Spanberger won in a 15-point landslide last year after touting her reputation for bipartisanship built on three terms representing a conservative-leaning district in Congress. But her current ratings reflect sharp polarization among Virginia voters in their views of the state’s first female governor.

After operating in secrecy for years, a startup company called R3 Bio, in Richmond, California, suddenly shared details about its work last week—saying it had raised money to create nonsentient monkey “organ sacks” as an alternative to animal testing. In an interview with Wired, R3 listed three investors: billionaire Tim Draper, the Singapore-based fund Immortal Dragons, and life-extension investors LongGame Ventures. But there is more to the story. And R3 doesn’t want that story told. MIT Technology Review discovered that the stealth startup’s founder John Schloendorn also pitched a startling, medically graphic, and ethically charged vision for what he's called...

The Democrats have made it very clear that their plan, if they regain power in November, is to go on a massive retribution tour against President Trump and anyone who didn't adequately "resist" his administration. Susan Rice said Democrats will attack businesses, colleges, and others who "bent the knee" to Trump, saying on a podcast that, "Companies already are starting to hear they better preserve their documents, they better be ready for subpoenas. If they've done something wrong, they will be held accountable. And if they haven't broken the law, good for them; if they've done the right things, good...

The TSA showdown reveals a brutal truth about our politics America’s newest political battlefield runs through one of the most miserable places in the country: the airport.Democrats have held up funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid their ongoing war over ICE, and after a month without pay, TSA employees have started refusing to come to work. The result has been crippling delays at major airports, with waits stretching four hours or more and turning an already degraded flying experience into something closer to a public humiliation ritual.The GOP theoretically holds the levers of power, but in practice...