Free Republic

An unimaginably horrific crime occurred on Monday in Austin, Texas, area and not enough people are talking about it. And it's a crime Texas voters might want to be thinking about when they make their way to the ballot box this November to choose a new senator.A 62-year-old man had just visited his mother in a nursing home in Round Rock and taken her for a walk in a local park. After he got her settled back in at the home, he returned to the park on his own and sat down on a bench, minding his own business.***according to...

US President Donald Trump said he did not regret going to war against Iran despite the impact the conflict may have on the November US midterm elections. "I don't believe in the word 'regret.' You can always question yourself a little bit," Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham when asked if he regretted the Iran war due to the impact it may have on the elections. "If I had it do again, I would do exactly as I did," Trump said in the interview broadcast on Thursday on The Ingraham Angle show. Trump dismissed suggestions...

The Supreme Court Thursday rejected a bid to implement a new congressional map in Missouri that would have likely given Republicans an extra seat in the House of Representatives.In an order with no noted dissents the high court imposed a stay on the map while a lawsuit brought by opponents of the redistricting gambit makes its way through the legal system.For now, Missouri must use the map implemented following the 2020 census, which has returned a House delegation of six Republicans and two Democrats. The new map would have carved up parts of Kansas City to weaken the Democrats’ grip...

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November. The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation. “If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”

President Trump is spending Labor Day flooding his Truth Social account with AI-generated images about conquering both the Earth and outer space alike. Trump on Monday posted a map of North America, where both Canada and Mexico are annexed to the United States — and shaded in stars and stripes.He dropped several posts suggesting the state of New Mexico be renamed “New America.” The posts carried various maps bearing the new name. In another, Trump claimed the moon for the United States. The president dropped about 40 posts over a 10-hour period on Sunday before taking it up again on...

US special envoy Jared Kushner says next month’s Knesset election has made Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government act “a little irrational” when it comes to Gaza. “I think we agree with the Israelis on the end state for Gaza,” Kushner says at a press appearance during a visit to Kyiv, where he was taking part in negotiations over the war. “They just have crazy elections, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards,” he adds.The US has been trying to advance the Board of Peace’s plan to decommission the weapons of Hamas and all other armed groups in...

A Marina Del Rey woman earned a slap on the wrist after she pled guilty to bombshell charges that she paid homeless people on Skid Row to register to vote in a 20-year scheme tied to illegal petition signature collection.Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, also known as “Anika,” even let homeless people use her own address to register to vote — meaning mail-in ballots could be sent to her home, a plea agreement obtained by the California Post states. Armstrong in May took a plea deal for one felony count of paying another person to register to vote in a...

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged continued support for Iran on Tuesday as the United States launched a new round of strikes against Iranian targets, highlighting the increasingly close relationship between Moscow and Tehran as President Donald Trump intensifies military and economic pressure on the Islamic Republic. *** The Post reported that Pezeshkian thanked Putin for Russia's support and urged the two countries to work together to counter U.S. sanctions. Putin said Russia was providing Iran with assistance and essential goods, according to the Post's account of the meeting. The Kremlin's support for Tehran came as U.S. forces launched a new...

The number of U.S. troops killed or wounded in the war with Iran has risen to 774 after the Pentagon added dozens of injured service members to its casualty count in recent days. The number listed as wounded climbed from 697 on Wednesday to 756 on Thursday, an increase of 59, according to the War Department's Defense Casualty Analysis System on Friday. The number of American military deaths remained at 18. The Pentagon did not immediately explain the sharp increase, including when or where the newly recorded injuries occurred. The War Department has divided the casualties into two categories following...

A hurdle to adding the final country to the list of temporary protected status terminations has been eliminated as the Trump administration continues to crack down on immigration, with refugee numbers at a record low.A Boston judge, Brian Murphy, lifted a final administrative stay, ending TPS for over 5,000 Ethiopians in the U.S. under the program, marking the 13th country with TPS status to be terminated in President Donald Trump’s second term.Those countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security argued in a social media...

Russia is shipping parts for drones, missiles and explosives to Iran to replenish its weapons stockpiles decimated by US and Israeli airstrikes during the war, according to a new report. More than two dozen Russian ships, many of them under US and European sanctions, traveled across the Caspian Sea to deliver the arms to Iran’s port in Amirabad, NBC News reported, citing documents and a Western official. While the development demonstrates Moscow and Tehran’s deepening alliance, it also proves that the US-Israeli strikes against Iran’s production plants have been largely successful, Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst, told the outlet....

President Donald Trump shared a striking social media post on Tuesday declaring the Strait of Hormuz to be American territory. The post featured a graphic image of the strait labeled "New United States Territory," a move that raises significant legal and diplomatic questions. The declaration comes amid ongoing tensions with Iran and American efforts to control the strategic shipping lane through which approximately 20 percent of the world's oil flows. While Trump has previously claimed the United States maintains "absolute control" over the strait, this latest statement represents a notable escalation in both language and policy positioning. That being said,...

Outgoing firebrand Rep. Nancy Mace used her new YouTube talk show to debut spicy tattoos on both arms — as she went sleeveless in public for the first time in months. Mace (R-SC) broke out her inked-up gun show while promoting “Get Maced,” a program where she will apparently address news of the day. The 48-year-old South Carolina Republican revealed in February that she got several tattoos, which provided her “the pain that I need to feel.” However, she had kept them almost entirely covered up in public until she took to social media late last week to tease her...

President Donald Trump's war against Iran is stretching the limits of U.S. aircraft carriers and leaving the western Pacific without one of the key American warships as China shows more signs of aggression. The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. *** .*** The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program***. Instead, the U.S. is "doing the...

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the top US priority in the Iran war was keeping oil and gasoline prices low for Americans, with preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon ranking second.The remarks contrasted with President Donald Trump's repeated framing of the fight: that entering the war had the sole objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, even if that meant short-term economic sacrifices for Americans.Vance's comments also underscored the growing reality that the war now centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has forced to the top of the negotiating agenda. "I...

President Trump claimed Wednesday that the US has complete control of the Strait of Hormuz, one day after Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed increasing oil exports from the crucial waterway as Iran’s economy continues to free fall. “The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz. I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!” Trump proclaimed on Truth Social. “Our Naval Blockade is being called, by everyone, ‘A WALL OF STEEL,’ and there is nothing Iran can do about it,” he added. ***“On Sunday alone, over 20 million barrels left the Arabian gulf region, which is above the pre-conflict average.” Only...

Oil prices jumped about 5% Monday as doubt grew that the U.S. and Iran will reach a deal to increase ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed about 5% to close at $82.13 per barrel. Brent crude , the international benchmark, also settled around 5% higher at $87.72 a barrel. President Donald Trump told Axios on Sunday that the U.S. is “only semi-negotiating” with Iran, after he insisted last week that Washington and Tehran were in fact holding talks. Trump indicated that he would rely on the U.S. naval blockade to pressure Tehran rather...

Billionaire heiress Elizabeth Simons is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Democratic Party’s campaign to retake the House — even as she bankrolls the socialist causes and candidates that have Democrats’ establishment leaders increasingly on edge.Simons, who previously cut a $250,000 check to a super PAC backing Mayor Zohran Mamdani, has donated $354,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — the party’s chief House campaign arm — and thousands more to individual House candidates this election cycle. The donations, ironically, put Simons behind the same Democratic leadership forces trying to prevent the party’s increasingly powerful progressive wing from...

President Trump on Monday accused US Attorney Jeanine Pirro of folding “like an umbrella” for dismissing charges against former Olympian David Hearn — rather than standing by the case that alleged the canoeist vandalized the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.“The judge was extremely unfriendly to Jeanine and frankly, I think she choked,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “The judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked.” “I was disappointed in Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed in...

President Trump on Monday blasted Iran’s leadership as “unbelievably duplicitous,” accusing Tehran of privately pursuing peace talks with the US while publicly denying any negotiations were taking place days after he called off a massive military campaign planned for the weekend.In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed Iranian officials had sought a meeting with the US before turning around and insisting they were only in talks with Oman over plans for the Strait of Hormuz. “They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that...