Free Republic

The Golden Globes has snubbed popular right-leaning podcasters out of a nomination in its inaugural best podcast category. Leading up to its 83rd annual ceremony, the Golden Globes announced back in May that they would unveil the first ever podcast category. Since then, speculation about the potential nominees circulated, with right-wing host Ben Shapiro going as far as campaigning. In November, Shapiro plastered billboards in Times Square with ads that said 'For Your Golden Globes Consideration.' But the six nominees have sparked controversy across social media, leaving people questioning why the biggest MAGA firebrand podcasters have been left out. The...

Iran and Egypt have complained to FIFA after Seattle designated their World Cup game as a ‘Pride Match’. The fixture, between two countries in which homosexuality is outlawed, is meant to honour the LGBTQ+ community in the liberal city and the clash was pencilled in before it was known which sides would be involved. Due to take place on June 26, it coincides with Seattle’s Pride Weekend. However, the federations of each Muslim country have now contacted FIFA to express their opposition, in what is a growing, diplomatic incident more than six months out from tournament kick-off. Iranian Football Federation...

Only one American woman in politics, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, made Forbes’s 2025 list of most powerful women. Wiles, the White House’s first female chief of staff, is ranked 66th on the Forbes list, behind figures like pop star Taylor Swift, television host Oprah Winfrey and General Motors CEO Mary Barra. But the fact that Wiles, a veteran political consultant who also served as Trump’s campaign co-chair in 2024, is the only one on the list who works in American politics highlights the low number of women in powerful positions within the federal government. Other women in...

One week after the Sioux Center Library board voted 8-1 to continue offering a sexually explicit book called “Icebreaker” to any patron with a library card, it has been discovered that the library also stocks a book called “Identical” in the 12-year-old section of the library.Bookshelves The book graphically details multiple incidents in which a 9-year-old girl is sexually abused by her father, including one incident while her identical twin sister watches. In addition, the book contains violence, including self-harm and suicidal ideations, profanity and derogatory terms and drug and alcohol abuse. The abuse of the daughter, Kaeleigh, started when...

In 2015, the City of Los Angeles announced an ambitious plan (led by the person we then referred to as Mayor Yogapants) to completely eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. It was a vision: Vision Zero, they called it. Ten years later, traffic deaths in Los Angeles have doubled. A wonderfully progressive local government announced a plan to eliminate something, so we got much more of that thing. A community group, @peoplesvisionzero, is now trying to carry out some version of the failed plan with guerilla traffic engineering, sneaking new safety infrastructure into place without city permission. Recent result: In similar...

Can Congress create federal agencies with power to enforce the laws and prosecute crimes, but which agencies are outside the control of the President? In a 1935 decision called Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court held that it could. I first wrote about this subject in a post back in December 2016 titled “Can The Separation Of Powers Of The Federal Government Be Righted?” December 2016 was immediatey after Donald Trump had first been elected President, but before he had taken office. The backdrop of the post was the issue of the extent to which the newly-elected President Trump would be...

A Dallas congresswoman opened her Senate campaign by telling voters that she “has gone toe to toe with Donald Trump.” Her Democratic primary opponent insisted that Americans are tired of “politics as a blood sport.” The divergent approach highlights how U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are navigating a race where Democrats hope to break a three-decade losing streak in Texas. It also reflects a broader divide within the party, with some candidates continuing to focus on Trump while others barely mention his name on the trail. Figuring out the best approach will be critical for Democrats...

The ever-ditzy Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) was a guest on the "Grounded" podcast, when she was asked by host Jon Tester about the presence of military personnel in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Illinois. Though the podcast aired this past September, a couple of her comments have recently re-surfaced and gone viral. When Tester asked the congresswoman her thoughts on the military presence in those cities, Crockett replied, “I think it’s terrible.” That opinion can legitimately be debated by people of good faith. However, she went on to say: "I want to be clear that, like, law enforcement isn't...

One of the most important cyclical events in my life as a data analyst of American religion is the semi-regular release of the General Social Survey.... I was more than pleased that the Association of Religion Data Archives had already managed to upload the 2024 General Social Survey to their website... I wanted to do a really tight “zoom in” on the changes in the religious composition of the GSS before the pandemic and then in the 2024 data. So, here’s how things have shifted since 2016.... You can see some really significant swings in these figures from 2018. For...

For a brief, shining moment in 1945, the United States stood astride the world like a colossus. In four years, we had built the greatest military machine in human history, liberated half the planet, and dropped the sun itself on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to prove the point. Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan (three empires that had terrorized the globe) lay in smoking ruins. The message was unmistakable: try America on the battlefield and you will be annihilated. Our enemies learned the lesson. They have not seriously attempted a direct military confrontation since. Instead, they (and the ideological heirs...

Either Americans win, or the criminals do. Pithy social critic David Burge said it best: “Journalism is about covering important stories — with a pillow, until they stop moving.” One of the important stories that “journalists” are covering up today is the Trump administration’s increasingly successful efforts to combat violent crime. At the end of July, the Department of Homeland Security released a report showing that violent crime rates had dropped significantly during the first six months of President Trump’s second term. Homicides were down 17%; gun assaults were down 21%; aggravated assaults were down 10%; sexual assaults were down...

About one in three U.S. households rents, a ratio that has stayed surprisingly steady over the past six decades.But with mortgage rates soaring from 2.7% in 2020 to almost 7% today - and home prices continuing to climb - the share of renters has edged up.Today, it takes $121,400 to afford a typical home, or 43% higher than the average salary.This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows the share of Americans renting versus owning by state, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.A Closer Look at Renting vs. Owning in AmericaAs the table below shows, states with the...

The map, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, highlights how credit card delinquency varies widely across the U.S. in 2025.These figures represent the share of credit card accounts that became 30 or more days past due from Q1 to Q2. The data for this visualization comes from WalletHub.Southern States Lead in DelinquenciesThe Deep South stands out with the nation’s highest delinquency rates. Mississippi tops the list at 37%, followed by Louisiana at 32% and Alabama at 31%.These levels are far above the national norm and suggest elevated financial pressures, including lower median incomes and higher reliance on revolving debt. Several neighboring...

NEW YORK (AP) — Raul Malo, the soulful tenor and frontman of the genre-defying, Grammy-winning band The Mavericks, has died. He was 60. Malo died Monday night, his wife, Betty Malo, posted on his Facebook page. He had been battling cancer. The frontman of The Mavericks had documented his health journey on social media since he disclosed in June 2024 that he was receiving treatment for colon cancer. In September 2025, Malo said on Instagram that he was battling LMD, or leptomeningeal disease, a rare complication when cancer spreads to membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Born Raul...

December 9, 1965, marked a quiet revolution in American holiday television — the day A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS. Based on the beloved Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, the half-hour animated special introduced to millions a different kind of Christmas story: small in scale, emotionally honest, tender, and subversively thoughtful. At the time, few expected much. The special was produced on a modest budget, completed in just six months, and featured child actors rather than seasoned voice talents — a bold choice for 1965 television. Executives worried: no laugh track, understated pacing, a jazz soundtrack by Vince...

Waymo is hitting the brakes on its robotaxi software and issuing a voluntary recall after school bus safety concerns came to light earlier this year. The recall won’t necessarily pull cars from the road but will instead see them updated. It comes after an investigation by Nexstar’s KXAN found the company’s driverless vehicles illegally passed school buses with their stop arms out in Austin, Texas. The Austin Independent School District said similar incidents occurred at least 19 times this school year, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation in October. In November, cameras captured a Waymo...

James Talarico, Texas state representative and Senate primary rival, said in a statement emailed to Newsweek Monday: "We’re building a movement in Texas—fueled by record-breaking grassroots fundraising and 10,000 volunteers who are putting in the work to defeat the billionaire megadonors and puppet politicians who have taken over our state. Our movement is rooted in unity over division—so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race." Overall, polling remains tight for both Crockett and Talarico regardless of who the Republican rival ends up being, but a rundown from Real Clear Polling showed the GOP still winning, regardless of the nominee, by...

"Imagine if the US and EU were still aligned on the censorship-by-proxy strategy. Few people realize how close we were to global totalitarianism." —Michael Shellenberger. Norm Eisen, Lawfare Ninja Supreme Western Civ is choking itself to death with lawfare in the name of “democracy.” If you think just a little bit past the sale, you will realize that few will say what they mean by “democracy,” including the most ardent “democracy” cultists. What it supposedly means is legal outcomes that the political left wants, not what the law, or the truth, or justice requires. On the surface, the left pretends...

The US has released a new National Security Strategy which re-envisions the Monroe Doctrine for a new century. Bernhard at MoA covered it in full here for those interested in the thorough details. I’ll instead look at the bigger picture, as well as one specific, fascinating aspect of this major rethink of US foreign policy. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/world/europe/trump-europe-strategy-document.htmlNYT’s subheading reframes the new vision as a hatred for Europe: A new White House policy document formalizes President Trump’s long-held contempt for Europe’s leaders. It made clear that the continent now stands at a strategic crossroads. Well, why wouldn’t Trump hate the new Europe?...

In the history of American governance, few chapters will stain the pages as darkly as the utter failure of the Biden-Harris administration to safeguard unaccompanied migrant children. I must ask this question: If their goal was to intentionally traffic children into sexual slavery and forced labor, how would their actions have been any different? For four catastrophic years, vulnerable minors poured across the Rio Grande and were funneled into a system riddled with incompetence, willful blindness, and flat-out negligence. A report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) landed like a bomb and exposed the...