Free Republic

Even as suicide, drug abuse, sexual depravity, gender confusion, illiteracy, and violence reach record levels among children in Illinois government schools, leftist lawmakers and far-left media propagandists are painting a giant target on the backs of homeschool families in the state. Homeschoolers, who on average perform better than their government-educated peers on every metric, are preparing to fight back. But in a deep blue state like Illinois, concerns are growing as policymakers consider a bill to impose more government control over homeschooling families after about 75 years of relative freedom in the state. The latest assault on the homeschool community...

The reaction to Covid showed Americans the system wasn’t going to save them. They were going to have to do it themselves. When Donald Trump first sailed into the Oval Office, his detractors shrieked that his blunt rhetoric was dividing the country. His supporters pointed out that Trump wasn’t so much creating division as he was revealing divisions that had been growing in America for a long time. The reaction to the novel Wuhan coronavirus did the country a similar service, by revealing a new fault line: two sets of rules, which were applied differently to Americans depending on their...

According to a proposal by Democrats at the Colorado state Capitol, up to a $20,000 fine will hang over the heads of every retailer who sells either liquid or gas fuels if they don’t have global warming warning stickers on their pumps and products if House Bill 25-1277 is signed into law. The bill, Increasing Transparency Impact of Fuel Products, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, Rep. Junie Joseph, D-Boulder and Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Jefferson County, says retail outlets selling petroleum-based fuel products must put stickers on pumps, store displays and other retail items or face fines. “Evidently the purpose...

Let’s revisit the tumultuous second half of 2021. Dementia-addled President Joe Biden executed a disastrous retreat from Afghanistan in August that resulted in the killing of thirteen servicemembers. Having spectacularly failed America’s warfighters, he transitioned quickly to the ongoing “fight against COVID.” No cost was too great or burden too onerous in the federal government’s war against microscopic organisms. Billions were funneled to pharmaceutical companies (aka Democrat Party donors) to pay for witch doctors’ experimental elixirs. Billions more were funneled to “news” platforms and “non-governmental” organizations (all on the USAID dole) to push the White House’s preferred COVID narratives and...

Britain performed worse than most other developed nations in its response to the Covid pandemic, according to an Observer analysis of international data, five years on from the first lockdown. The UK spent more money than most other countries on economic help yet still ended up with larger drops in life expectancy, more people too sick to work, huge levels of homelessness and soaring mental health problems among young people. Thousands will gather around the UK on Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of the pandemic, yet the effects of Covid are not over and continue to affect the poorest...

Most of the world found itself confined to their homes in March 2020 as Covid-19 spread at a blistering pace. Some countries didn't impose any lockdown restrictions – so was their decision the right one? In March 2020, billions of people stared out through their windows at a world they no longer recognised. Suddenly confined to their homes, their lives had shrunk abruptly to four walls and computer screens. Around the world, national leaders appeared on television, telling them to stay put – only leave the house to buy essential supplies or for once-daily exercise, maybe. It was a last-ditch...

Few people realize just how destructive the modern EPA is, so we’d better hope that Trump’s efforts are successful. Trump’s EPA has started the process to rescind the EPA’s authority to regulate CO2 and other alleged greenhouse gasses. It would remake our nation and shake a Western civilization already being pummeled by green madness. These regulations, both here and abroad, have been stalking horses for socialism and vehicles for fraud. graft, and funding left-wing actors on a scale unseen in human history. On the international stage, the move to declare CO2 a pollutant and man its evil cause agent began...

The Biden administration funneled at least $20 billion dollars into environmental groups, most of which had only recently been founded, The Post has discovered. In one case, former Vice President Kamala Harris handed over a check for nearly $7 billion to Bethesda, Maryland, based group Climate United Fund, which does not appear in the IRS’s charities database, and has no federal filings. The non-profit fund had only been incorporated in Delaware on November 30, 2023, according to public records, five months before Harris handed over the cash in April 2024. The Climate United Fund then announced “the historic investment” in...

Gavin Newsom & his allies just forced 12 historic family farms & dairies out of Point Reyes National Seashore in California. They claim it’s about saving the environment — but the truth couldn't be more different. Here is the true story — and it's heartbreaking. 2/ For over 100 years, ranchers and dairy farmers have worked the land at Point Reyes. They built Marin’s organic food movement & supplied fresh milk to Californians. Now they’re being forced out — by environmental groups, the federal government, and Newsom’s political allies. ... 3/ When Congress created Point Reyes National Seashore in 1962,...

A 60 Minutes segment on Germany's approach to policing online speech has ignited fierce debate on both sides of the Atlantic after it aired in the U.S. on Sunday. Critics have called the country's laws "Orwellian," while defenders insist they are necessary to prevent hate-fueled violence. The CBS News piece showcased how German authorities crack down on online speech deemed harmful or offensive under the country's stringent speech laws. The report documented early-morning police raids targeting individuals suspected of posting content that could incite hatred, including insults and even memes. Why It Matters The debate over Germany's online speech laws...

On January 20th and 21st, President Donald Trump took two actions that were so conflicting that the second nullified the gains of the first. Worse, it boosts the Great Reset advanced by the global elite and may herd Americans into the sort of digital gulag in which communist China confines its citizens. His first action was his January 20 executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO). Note that this is an announcement of intent, and he later said the U.S. might consider rejoining if they “clean it up.” In any case, a formal delinking can happen...

We are in February 2025. I received a message from someone asking for help. “I’m a nutrition student in my third semester, and my dear college requires all vaccines for me to be allowed to do my internships. I really don’t know what to do.” Right after that, a doctor shared another report. He explained that Santa Casa de São Paulo is still requiring Covid vaccines from patients to be eligible for surgeries. Don’t want to get vaccinated? No surgery. Die right there. Many other places are likely still enforcing these mandates at this very moment. This is my motivation...

A monument honoring those impacted by COVID-19 and those who worked to limit its spread is coming to the Illinois Medical District on Chicago’s Near West Side this year, five years after the pandemic outbreak. The 25-foot, stainless steel monument, titled “COVID-19 Memorial Monument of Honor, Remembrance & Resilience,” will be built at 2023 W. Ogden Ave., on the one-acre triangle at West Polk Street, South Damen Avenue and West Ogden Avenue and nestled between Stroger Hospital and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center . Its unveiling is planned for this fall. “Now Chicago will be the physical place where the...

Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were instructed to cease “all supervision and examination activity” and “all stakeholder engagement,” effectively stopping the agency’s operations, in an email from the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, on Saturday evening. Mr. Vought, who was confirmed this week to lead the Office of Management and Budget, was on Friday named acting director of the consumer protection bureau, the federal government’s financial industry watchdog. In his email to staff on Saturday, he reaffirmed earlier instructions from the previous acting director, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who ordered last week that...

In a stunning and sweeping emergency injunction that has even stunned the people who demanded it, a Manhattan-based District Judge has just removed Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent from his authority over the Treasury Department; blocked any political appointee from accessing records within the Treasury Department; blocked any “special appointee” of President Trump from records within Treasury; and demanded that all information previously extracted be destroyed. The emergency injunction was signed by District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan, determined without any input from the Trump administration and applies until Friday, February 14, 2025, when U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas...

(Brooklyn Center, MN) -- The Minnesota State High School League will still allow student-athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. A memo sent to schools said, "The Minnesota State High School League, similar to other youth sports organizations, is subject to state anti-discrimination laws, which prohibit discrimination based on gender identity." The letter comes in the wake of President Trump signing an executive order to ban transgender athletes from playing girl's and women's sports. The M-S-H-S-L said it will continue to review how state laws interplay with the executive order.

Over the years, we have loved being able to tell people that Illinois was among the best states with homeschool freedoms. That is thanks, in part, to a 1950 case (People v. Levisen) in which the Illinois Supreme Court considered the case of parents who were convicted of violating a law requiring children between the ages of 7 and 16 to attend a public school. The parents in this case were Seventh Day Adventists who believed that educating their child at home was the best option. The court determined that the term “private school” included instruction given to a child...

Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll is reportedly refusing to give the names of the officials involved in January 6 cases and Trump investigations. Brian Driscoll is currently serving as Acting FBI Director as Trump nominee Kash Patel awaits confirmation. CNN reported that “At least six FBI leaders” have been removed or told to resign by Monday. President Trump fired the head of the FBI Washington Field Office, David Sundberg, canned 20 other heads of offices. As many as 88 FBI officials were marched out of their offices on Friday. According to an email from acting Director Brian Driscoll and reviewed...

March marks the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, a collective trauma that New Englanders faced together. For an upcoming story to mark the anniversary, the Globe is asking readers to share their memories of moments from the pandemic. Examples: Memories of being sent home from school or work, losing a loved one, new routines you created in isolation, including on Zoom; getting your first vaccine, going back to school or work; seeing someone without a mask for the first time. Please share photos, videos, social media posts and written recollections of no longer than 100 words.

Hello, everyone. I received a new message from triple-amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage; he asked me to release. The official Free Amputee Vet Brian Kolfage page is on Substack. Kolfage was wrongfully imprisoned by the infamous SDNY Democrat operatives over being paid an approved salary for his part in getting miles of privately funded border wall built in Texas and New Mexico. I was the videographer & news editor for Brian’s organization, and I am heading up the movement to get him a pardon from President Trump. Here’s the new message from Brian: I want to thank everyone who...