Free Republic

Former special counsel Jack Smith is asking that he be allowed to appear publicly after House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded his testimony.“Given the many mischaracterizations of Mr. Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Mr. Smith respectfully requests the opportunity to testify in open hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees,” his attorneys wrote in a letter to Jordan.Jordan requested a transcribed, closed-door interview with Smith earlier this month, accusing the former special counsel and his team team of launching “politically motivated...

On the evening of October 6, Argentina’s President Javier Milei performed an arena rock show, thrashing out nine songs in front of 15,000 fans in Buenos Aires to launch his new book, The Construction of a Miracle. “I want to thank The Forces of Heaven,” roared the libertarian economist, who was once in a Rolling Stones tribute band. “Because victory in battle doesn’t depend on the number of soldiers, but on the forces that come from heaven.” At exactly the same moment, Milei’s economy minister Luis Caputo was in Washington, appealing for help — not from heaven, but from the...

As an example of political self-harm by establishment political parties, the current Irish presidential election will be hard to equal. The latest opinion poll before Friday’s vote indicates that the far-Left independent candidate, Catherine Connolly, is likely to romp home in this two-horse race. With just two days to go, Connolly has an unassailable 19-point lead over her sole opponent, Heather Humphreys of the centre-Right Fine Gael party. Humphreys ended up being the establishment candidate, after the centrist Fianna Fáil party’s candidate was forced to withdraw from the election as a result of a minor scandal regarding overpaid rent of...

For Xi, rare-earths bombshell signaled a new toughness, while TikTok was ‘spiritual opium’ that could be turned into a low-cost bargaining chipDuring his first term, President Trump often frustrated Xi Jinping with his freewheeling mix of threats and bonhomie. This time, the Chinese leader believes he has cracked the code.Xi has thrown out China’s traditional diplomatic playbook and tailored a new one specifically for Trump, said people close to Chinese policymakers, who describe Xi as appearing confident and emboldened. The new strategy, these people said, embraces Trump’s self-image as a master dealmaker, offering concessions on high-visibility issues he personally cares...

The World Health Organization has quietly released a new “global health emergency plan” that, if implemented, would hand unprecedented authority to unelected global bureaucrats — giving them the power to command “emergency coordination” not just during pandemics, but for virtually any global crisis, including climate change and online speech.Buried inside the document’s “National and International Emergency Coordination” section, the WHO outlines a sweeping new vision for centralized command.It’s open subordination of national governments to “unified leadership” from Geneva.“National and International Emergency Coordination” — Replacing Sovereignty with Central CommandThe WHO’s report makes clear that so-called “emergencies” will no longer be confined...

Video

24 October 2025Friday of week 29 in Ordinary Time St Anthony Mary Claret Catholic Church, San AntonioReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingRomans 7:18-25Every time I want to do good it is something evil that comes to handI know of nothing good living in me – living, that is, in my unspiritual self – for though the will to do what is good is in me, the performance is not, with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want. When I act against...

After protesters got within a few feet of President Trump at a D.C. restaurant last month, his team was so alarmed it had a tense talk with Secret Service officials about Trump's security, Axios has learned. Trump rarely makes such unannounced appearances in D.C., but top advisers say the Sept. 9 incident at Joe's, a seafood restaurant near the White House, has made surprise pop-ins by Trump much less likely. They also remain suspicious about how protesters from the group Code Pink knew he would be at the restaurant that night. Why it matters: The episode illustrates how Trump's security...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has doubled down on his recent comments about migrants and criminality, saying Germans and Europeans were "afraid to move around in public spaces."On a visit to Potsdam last week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz talked about how his government was toughening up its migration policy. The primary aim, he said, was to continue to combat what he called illegal immigration.Then he added another sentence, which has since caused a furor: "But we still have this problem in the cityscape, of course, and that's why the federal interior minister is facilitating and carrying out large-scale deportations."The offhand remark...

The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor on Friday, ending a four-month standoff that left the Democratic nominee without the backing of one of the party’s most powerful figures until the day before early voting begins. The announcement arrives after months of pressure from progressives in Congress and after the top Democrat has been repeatedly grilled by reporters about his reluctance to support his party’s candidate. “Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support...

More than a quarter of New Yorkers will consider fleeing the Big Apple if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor, according to a new poll that warns that a socialist-run City Hall “could reshape the city for years to come.” The shocking new survey, released Friday morning from polling firm Victory Insights, revealed that a “whopping” 26.5% of respondents were thinking about moving in 2026 if the Democratic Socialists of America lawmaker takes the helm. The poll has Mamdani dominating every combination of match-ups, with his majority seemingly inevitable with healthy leads in each. In the most likely three-way race, the...

The NBA scoreboard has turned into a stock ticker. Crowd chants, but half of them are watching their parlays instead of the play. Somewhere a coach calls timeout; somewhere else a bookmaker grins. This was always coming. The NBA invited gambling to the game when it signed lucrative sponsorship deals and paved the way for odds and offers to be splashed over our TV screens during games. So when the FBI finally showed up on Thursday, they were simply collecting the rent.Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, whose playing career ended with his induction in the hall of fame, and Miami...

New schools, accreditors, and tests—plus new rankings—mean much-needed competition.Admissions officers from two of the nation’s elite law schools joined the Advisory Opinions podcast in early August for a conversation about how students earn a coveted spot in their institutions. Surprisingly, both lamented the dearth of high objective standards at many of the prestigious colleges and universities from which their applicants came.“It’s actually absurd, the level of grade inflation,” said Kristi Jobson, dean of admissions at Harvard Law School. “When you have tons of people with high LSAT scores and everyone is coming with a 3.9 and up, how do you...

With a week and a half until Election Day and the latest polls suggesting Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli narrowing the gap with Democratic rival Rep. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey's race for governor, President Donald Trump is stepping in to push his GOP ally over the finish line. While not physically dropping into the Garden State campaign trail, at least as of now, Trump will headline a tele-rally with Ciattarelli on Friday night, hours before early voting kicks off in New Jersey's competitive gubernatorial showdown. "EARLY VOTING EVE TELE-RALLY with President Donald J. Trump! Join us Friday, October 24 at...

On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and go after them with the full might of the U.S. military. He has kept his word. He has not, however, gone to Congress for an official declaration of war as mandated by the Constitution.“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” Trump told RealClearPolitics Thursday when asked about strikes against alleged cartel boats in the Caribbean off the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela. “I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?...

Rates are much higher in states that have closed nuclear and fossil-fuel generation plants. Electricity prices are rising, and Democrats are making it a campaign issue. They blame the price hike on President Trump and congressional Republicans, who ended Biden-era renewable-energy subsidies in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But prices are actually soaring because of plant closures and natural-gas shortages in blue states, all in the name of green energy. Energy Department data show that electricity prices in California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York have risen more than 30% in the past five years compared with just...

Illinois governor's incitement of violence for illegals' sake is about powerI know a thing or two about being at odds with the political establishment, and I am no stranger to corrupt prosecutors in law enforcement. Yet even in the most contentious days of my governorship and during my darkest days in my fight for justice, I never dreamed I’d see the day when the governor of Illinois would publicly attack our law enforcement officers for doing their jobs to enforce our immigration laws.Nor could I have ever imagined that I would see the day when a governor, elected by...

Mark Bashaw, the only member of the Armed Forces to be court-martialed for refusing to take the COVID shot, has been reinstated to the U.S. Army, promoted as if he'd never been discharged, and awarded back pay. Making the victory sweeter is the fact that he was prosecuted by none other than current Virginia congressman, then Colonel Yevgeny Semyonovich Vindman, the brother of Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Semyonovich Vindman, of Trump impeachment fame. Bashaw, a former USAF noncommissioned officer, had been commissioned into the Army's Medical Service Corps and was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He was charged in February 2022...

President Trump and everyone around him who were merciless tormented by the government for years are entitled to damages--not just to recoup financial losses but to ensure this doesn't happen again.The rage du jour relates to news that President Trump is not abandoning his pursuit of recouping part of the massive financial losses he incurred fighting the government’s decade-long lawfare against him. On Tuesday, the New York Times confirmed the president is seeking a total of $230 million in damages for defending himself in both the Russiagate investigation and the unprecedented criminal cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.While the...

Democrat Governor Tony Evers announced over the summer that he will not seek reelection. That leaves the door open for Republicans which would give the GOP total control of state government. A name being floated for the Democrats is Mandela Barnes. Barnes left the Lt. Gov. position to run against Ron Johnson for the U.S. Senate. Barnes lost that race.