Free Republic

DC is in full meltdown mode after Eric Swalwell announced on Monday he would resign from Congress amid explosive sexual misconduct allegations — sparking a firestorm of speculation from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The bombshell departure of the high-profile Trump critic came via a somber written statement in which Swalwell apologized for his conduct and admitted to “mistakes in judgement” while still pushing back on the most serious accusations — including an ex-staffer who claimed he raped her. But his attempt to control the narrative quickly unraveled. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) torched Swalwell in a series...

A 19-year-old Afghan national is due to appear in court today in Bouches-du-Rhône after being arrested for repeatedly breaking into farms and sexually assaulting goats and sheep, causing serious injuries to the animals. According to local farmers and police reports, the suspect carried out the attacks over roughly two months in the Les Pennes-Mirabeau area near Marseille. He would enter the farms at night, tie up the animals (sometimes by the legs), and rape them. At least six animals were victimized, some on multiple occasions. The assaults caused visible injuries, including bloody vulvas, vaginal and anal lacerations. One young lamb...

Drip, drip, drip. Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic, more details are being revealed concerning the failure of federal public health officials to come clean about lingering safety issues with the COVID-19 vaccine. Senate investigators have conclusively proved, for example, that Biden administration officials downplayed the risk of vaccine-induced myocarditis (heart inflammation) and failed to warn the public. Widespread and dangerous loss of trust in public health authorities is thus hardly unsurprising.

An ‘Islamophobic’ incident in California shows the ridiculousness of the whole charade. The Simi Valley, California Police Department had a momentous announcement on Wednesday: they revealed that they were “investigating a possible ‘hate incident’ at an Islamic Society of Simi Valley building,” according to NBC Los Angeles. What kind of “hate incident”? That’s unclear. What is clear from several recent incidents, however, is that although most people, especially political and law enforcement officials, are much more worried about “Islamophobia” than they are about Islamic jihad, the latter is actually much more of a threat. It all started apparently when someone...

... Vance's popularity has dropped by 21% since the start of the term in 2025. Compared to other Vice Presidents in recent history, he holds the worst rating at this stage of a term, with a score of -18.

New police data shows foreign nationals feature disproportionately in violent offences, with sharp regional disparities and rising political pressure. Germany’s latest police crime statistics (PKS) have reignited the migration debate, with new data showing a stark overrepresentation of foreign nationals in violent offences. According to the figures, non-German suspects—particularly from Syria and Afghanistan—feature disproportionately in serious crimes. While foreign nationals account for around 15% of the population, their share of violent crime suspects is significantly higher. The imbalance is especially visible at regional level. In several federal states, including Bavaria, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg, roughly half of all suspects in violent...

California’s war on cars knows no bounds, which is far out of step for the state that launched America’s car culture. While policymakers haven’t yet outlawed the classics, their failure to act responsibly has added to the burden of owning them. Famous classic collector Jay Leno aims to change this. There are almost 36 million vehicles registered in California, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. While the number of classic cars is difficult to determine, Sen. Shannon Grove says there are 320,000 automobiles made from 1976 to 1991 in the state. That’s an almost imperceptibly thin slice, less than...

In an arid valley near the village of Kourtimale in southern Djibouti, a tattered chain link fence marks the boundaries of what was once Abdi Guelleh's farm. Within it, there's not a speck of greenery in sight. Broken lengths of irrigation piping lie scattered in the dust. A derelict weather station stands in a corner amid a tangle of cables. Here and there, taps that haven't seen water in years protrude from the earth. There's little to hint at the fact that this lifeless 2.5-acre plot was once meant to be one tiny brick in one of the world's most...

Gavin Newsom is lying about Israel to curry favor with extremists in Minneapolis, Dearborn, and New York City. And that is just one Democrat, there are many more. "Gavin Newsom bets antisemitism is the Democratic Party’s future" from the New York Post sums up the entire theme of this article. "Gavin Newsom endorsed the lie Tuesday that Israel is an 'apartheid' state — a damning sign of where the Democratic Party is headed, and how far it’s already sunk." If Newsom doesn't know that Christian and Muslim Israeli citizens can vote and be elected to the Knesset, and that Israel's...

It's easy to be a 'Doomer' these days, and while the GOP hasn't been exceptional, the choices have never been clearer. Although it's far worse for the left than the right, it's difficult to feel positive about the future given the circumstances of today. While we have a president willing to take chances and look at the big picture, we have other politicians ostensibly on the pro-freedom side that act like risk-averse church mice, afraid of their own shadows and unwilling to implement measures that garner support from most of the electorate. They are contrasted by the cruel and violent...

Iranians celebrating the cancelation of visas for Islamic Regime relatives living luxurious lives in the U.S. have warned the seven deported so have are just “the tip of the iceberg.” Shayan Khosravanifarahani, a journalist and activist, praised State Secretary Marco Rubio for taking action against those who have ties to the regime, telling The Post that for too long they’ve living comfortably using money stolen from the Iranian people. He said the families of the regime were ”using American” to platform their propaganda, lobby, get educated and generally live a safe, more comfortable life. On Saturday, Rubio revoked the green...

Aimee Coombes says she will never get over losing her sister Sophie Brimble in a car crash in 2017. Now the trauma has come back with the driver jointly responsible back behind the wheelAimee Coombes (right) and her sister Sophie Brimble who died in a high speed car crash in Brynmawr in 2017(Image: Aimee Coombes) She lost her sister when she was killed in a high speed car race and now Aimee Coombes says she is re-living the trauma with the driver jointly responsible allowed back on the roads. Courts and police are powerless to stop Jay Bayliss holding a...

Sir Keir Starmer has some special guests to make you feel OK.

Video at link. About 50 minutes. A very good source of news that often includes cell phone video from inside Iran. Navy aircraft are being prepared for night time operations over Iran.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaks during a press conference next to President of the European Council António Costa (C) and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (R) following the European Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on December 19, 2024. “What bothers Brussels is not just that Hungary stands out, but that this alternative could become popular among a majority of Europeans over time.” Zoltán Kiszelly is a Hungarian political analyst currently serving as Director of the Center for Political Analysis at the Budapest-based Századvég Foundation. We talked to him about the Hungarian elections...

Richard Schenk heads the Democracy Interference Observatory (DIO) at MCC Brussels, a project dedicated to tracking the ways in which European institutions, Brussels-funded networks and certain political actors intervene in national campaigns across the European Union. In recent months, the observatory has focused much of its work on Hungary. Two days before this weekend’s parliamentary elections, Schenk argues that Budapest has become the main laboratory for a new form of European political pressure: less visible than in previous years, more sophisticated and, above all, built on regulatory, financial, and media instruments. For him, Hungary is no longer simply a conflict...

nti-liberty/gun cracktivists find themselves stuck on recycling old, failed narratives because there is really nothing new in the distortions and lies they tell in trying to obliterate the Second Amendment. Among those failed narratives is microstamping, a nonsensical measure about which I last wrote in Microstamping And Zombies, 2024 in June of 2024 at my home blog. Microstamping is laser engraving a unique, identifying code on the tips of firing pins which will “stamp” that code—letters, numbers, etc—on the primers of fired cases. Some microstamping schemes also demand a second stamp elsewhere on a fired case. California has always been...

It makes perfect sense that Democrats freaked out when DOGE started following the money. Look at what they’ve been up to all these years. here’s a reason Al Capone spent a few years in Alcatraz for tax evasion: Money is harder to hide than bodies. Any thug can take a few bucks from someone weaker. But when used, money leaves a trail. The key to criminal success is making ill gotten booty look as though it’s not ill gotten. That’s way easier said than done. This brings me to the Democrat party’s current woes. It is a political organization in...

So you say you want a revolution? Well, take a look at what’s happening in Ireland right now. Tens of thousands of farmers, truckers, and other fed-up “normies” are taking to the streets of Dublin to protest fuel taxes, mass immigration, and poverty-inducing “climate change” policies. For the most part, corporate news propagandists in both Europe and North America are intentionally ignoring the combustible situation. Just when I had begun to think that all the “fighting Irish” had moved to America, the Old Country has started to show signs of life. Perhaps there are still a few irascible pugilists willing...

As the administration's trap is closing on the Iranian government (at least the fourth level of it, which is all that has not been eliminated by the IAF and U.S. forces) Irishmen are blockading major roads and streets in Ireland. Only the Guinness tankers are being let through. Ostensibly, the dispute is over the rising cost of fuel, which will bankrupt farmers and truckers. However, if you’ve been paying attention, the rebellion goes deeper, to the high taxes, third-world immigration, and the highhandedness of the government. Under the guise of the idiotic net-zero policies, the Irish government has been using...