Free Republic

The Obama library — which isn't a library — has ballooned to a construction cost of more than $615 million, up from the original estimate of $300 million when the edifice was proposed in 2019. As 2024, the estimate had soared to $615 million, with the cost adding up to a whopping $615,674,047. But according to the Chicago Tribune, other estimates have already placed construction costs past the $700 million mark. Along with these massive cost overruns, the Barack Obama Presidential Center has had a very troubled history already, and it hasn’t even been completed yet. Originally, the Obama Center...

Generational power dynamics are why we’re in this position. I’m a late Gen-Xer. By some accounting, I’m an early Gen Y/Millenial. I refuse to be lumped into that group of individuals, personally, but that’s not why I’m writing this. Growing up, our parents pressed us to reach for our dreams. I think every good parent would want that for their kids, but I believe every generation’s motivations for that message are different. The Greatest Generation wanted their kids to not repeat the mistakes of the world at the turn of the 20th century. So many died for freedom, and the...

On September 17, 2025 the Gateway Pundit reported on President Trump on Wednesday evening announcing the designation of Antifa as a “major terrorist organization.” I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter! The ADL is now in hot water too after President Trump designated Antifa a “major terrorist organization.” The ADL has been...

This is one of those things that so many times, someone says it, people listen to it, and its a topic all of us know and know to be true. But then everybody moves on. No. Stop. Right here. We need a greater discussion and a greater recognition of the Abolitionist Founding Fathers. We need more of a focus on this instead of everybody just moving on. The progressives do not move on ergo we do not move on. We need sharing the details, knowing the details, being able to in specifics push back against progressivism when they wield the...

Jimmy Kimmel and the Long Tradition of Television Censorship by NetworksWhen Disney pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! from the air after affiliate stations refused to run it—and Kimmel refused to apologize—many framed the moment as a free speech issue. But in reality, this is not a new phenomenon. Kimmel is merely the latest in a long line of television personalities to discover that while free speech is protected from government interference, it does not shield individuals from the consequences imposed by employers, advertisers, or the broader marketplace.The tension between individual expression and corporate image has shaped the entertainment industry for decades....

Less than a week before a crash-and-grab burglary crew killed an innocent man on the Magnificent Mile last Thursday, one of the men now charged with that murder donned a “peacekeeper” uniform and posed for a one-on-one picture with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. While that’s troubling, some law enforcement experts are more concerned that the accused man was able to stand directly next to the state’s most powerful executive despite having outstanding warrants in four states. Just before 5 a.m. on September 11, a group of burglars backed a pickup truck into a display window at the Louis Vuitton store...

ABC News reporter Matthew Gutman apologized on Wednesday after he said the text messages between Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin and his transgender boyfriend were “touching.” Gutman described on “ABC News Live” how the suspected assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, expressed his love for his boyfriend, Lance Twiggs, and how he wanted to protect him after committing the assassination. After receiving scrutiny for calling the text messages “touching,” Gutman wrote on X that he regrets his words and condemns the murder committed by Robinson.

The department chair of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Alabama in Huntsville expressed strong resentment in recent social media posts for fallen Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, attempting to belittle Kirk's well-established Christian faith. Leslie Maxwell Kaiura is a self-proclaimed "progressive Christian feminist and LGBTQ ally." "It is spiritually exhausting and demoralizing to see Christians praising a man who used racist, sexist, homo/transphobic language and minimized the problem of gun violence," she wrote. "Jesus never treated the marginalized people or the 'sinners' of his day with mockery or rejection." Kaiura shared a post, again attacking Kirk's...

PICS OF TWEETS AT LINK............... Johnathan Perkins, formerly of Harvard, has also asserted Jews 'enjoy the benefits of whiteness' Johnathan Perkins (equity.ucla.edu) Collin Anderson September 15, 2025 The University of California, Los Angeles has placed its controversial race and equity director, Johnathan Perkins, on leave after he celebrated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk's assassination in a series of social media posts. Perkins, a veteran diversity consultant who worked in the Office of the General Counsel at Harvard University before joining UCLA in 2019, took to left-wing X copycat Bluesky on Friday to disparage Kirk. In one post, he responded to a...

Key Takeaways Two Ball State University employees are under investigation for controversial social media posts regarding the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The university administration has stated that the posts do not represent the campus culture, and they are reviewing the situation to determine appropriate disciplinary action under First Amendment rights. ============================================================ Two Ball State University employees are under investigation for their online social media posts regarding the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “The administration at Ball State is aware of social media posts by two university employees. Both posts were on the employees’ personal accounts, and the...

This morning, just as the first light crept over the trees, I heard the barred owl. Not the playful “who cooks for you” cadence, but the long, searching whooooo. A contact call, the owl’s way of saying: I am here. Where are you?Earlier this summer, the valley answered back. Adults and fledglings filled the night with their location calls, a chorus of presence and reassurance. Today, there was only silence.Isn’t it funny? An owl today. A creature recognized for centuries as a symbol of wisdom. And that’s what struck me: wisdom calls. The long whoooo was not just a location...

The Great Experiment and How It Ends: A Return to Nature, Purpose, and PartnershipIn the last several decades, Western society has launched what could be called a Great Experiment: a full-scale reengineering of the human relationship structure that has served civilization for thousands of years. The traditional roles of men and women have been dismantled, the institution of marriage devalued, and the idea of long-term partnership often treated as optional, or even regressive.This experiment was built on the promise of personal freedom: that women could have it all—career, independence, and family—on their own terms, and that men could be liberated...

The Permanent Record: From Empty Threat to Everyday Reality When I was a student back in the 1950s, we used to joke about the phrase “That’s going on your permanent record.” It was a hollow threat from teachers, something said when a kid stepped out of line — broke a rule, said something smart-alecky, or handed in an assignment late. We all laughed quietly to ourselves, because we knew there was no such thing. There was no record, and certainly nothing “permanent.” Today, that joke is no longer funny — because it has come true. We now live in a...

Since I announced the Anti-Communist Film Festival last month, the response has been fantastic. Conservatives understand that a film festival showcasing some of the great anti-communist movies can be a powerful - and fun - inoculation against a poisonous false god. What’s also been surprising is how many anti-communist movies there are. I’ve heard from people not only in the United States but with ties to Cuba, China, and the old Soviet Union. I’ve also heard from directors and actors in Hollywood. We’re planning the festival for fall 2026 if we can raise the money for it and attract a...

I have been trying to visit the website keepandbeararms.com. It has been available for years. I was able to obtain an image of the site which showed today's date, but I cannot actually connect with the website itself. One resource, isitdownrightnow.com told me it had been down for more than a week, but I remember seeing it last week. My suspicion is some browsers can see it and others cannot. Please report if you can bring it up or not.

On Tuesday’s ABC News Special Report about Utah County officials formally announcing charges against the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s murder, chief national correspondent Matt Gutman expressed affinity for the suspect and admiration for his love story with a trans person, gushing the text messages released by authorities were “lovingly” stated, “very intimate,” and “very touching.” Gutman was reporting from the site of the press conference when he told World News Tonight anchor David Muir something “that stood out” was “those text messages” between the suspect and his roommate/lover. “I don’t know if we have seen an alleged murder with such...

Is it any wonder that young voters come out of school and university much more left-wing than previous generations? The ability to indulge woolly-headed idealism, unfettered by knowledge of the real world, has always been one of the greatest privileges of youth and young adulthood. Traditionally, time and reality would eventually bite, enlivening the famous quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw (with variants attributed to Churchill among others): “If at age 20 you are not a communist then you have no heart. If at age 30 you are not a capitalist, then you have no brains.”

Actor Michael Keaton spoke out about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a rare move in a Hollywood culture where most celebrities have remained silent. The 74-year-old “Beetlejuice” actor made his opinions known at the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ 50th anniversary gala on Monday night, per Variety. “Before we start to get into the meat of this thing, I’m going to take a minute to say that, regardless of how I probably — not probably — have disagreed with many things he said, Charlie Kirk leaves behind two kids and a wife,” Keaton said during his speech. “You gotta...

Heather Cox Richardson, a center-left historian with the biggest following out of any individual on Substack, spread an appalling lie about Charlie Kirk’s assassin in a post published Sunday. Richardson has over 2.6 million subscribers to her Substack, a newsletter presumably read by scores of center-left, ‘normie’ liberals. She is a history professor at Boston College, has interviewed former President Joe Biden, and is planning to interview with The Bulwark. By no means is she a fringe figure, nor is she, at least on the surface, a radical; if anything, she is someone who would be welcomed on a show...