Free Republic

"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...

A transgender woman lands her dream job of working in a carbon mine, but after having the sex-change surgery must face a superstition that bans female workers from entering the underground galleries.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting outside the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles, Calif., Oct. 2, 2025. There are two kinds of antisemites in the world: Those that hate Jews and know it, and those that promote the hatred of Jews and don’t. I learned about both one tragic October day in 1983. And on another tragic October day 40 years later. I was the editor-in-chief of my college newspaper at the largest private college in New Jersey — Fairleigh Dickinson University—and my grandfather was of Lebanese descent, having come to America seeking a better life for his family. When 241...

If you keep up with current events at all, it is unlikely that you have missed in the past week the explosion of the Minnesota Somali welfare fraud scandal into the national, and even international, news. Not that the enormous Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota is something new. The bloggers at Powerline, who are based in Minnesota, have been covering the subject since at least 2018. Here is a May 2018 City Journal piece by Scott Johnson (of Powerline), reporting on an investigation of Somali-owned daycare centers in Minneapolis suspected of stealing millions by billing the government for inflated number...

Pete Hegseth “runs around on a stage talking about lethality and warrior ethos and killing people. … That’s not the message that needs to come from the Secretary of Defense,” complained Sen. Mark Kelly last week. The message, especially coming from a former Navy captain, is so bizarre it borders on satire. Nations have had organized armies since recorded history started around 3000 B.C. And, in the words of the late, great Rush Limbaugh, the whole point of having a military is to kill people and break things, even if that military is exclusively employed for defensive purposes. Surely even...

A few years ago, I penned a piece titled “Democratic Party Platform 2020,” which was viewed many times on several different “platforms,” including this one. (American Thinker always comes first.) As we approach the 2026 and 2028 elections, I thought it might be a good time to update said piece, especially given current events. Though Democrats don’t usually say much other than “Trump bad,” “Republicans fascists,” and “no one should ever have the right to disagree with anything we are — and aren’t — saying,” here is what the Democrats' updated platform appears to be, in a casual format: *We...

Everyone is shocked, shocked, that there is corruption going on in Minnesota, what with Feeding Our Future and Somali immigrants plundering various welfare programs for fun and profit, and top Minnesota politicians posing for photos with an illegal immigrant fraudster from Somalia. Experts agree that it would be racist not to rename the Minnesota Vikings as the Minnesota Somali Pirates. You and I, because we are so wise, are not surprised. We understand that, not later than the Roman Empire and its “bread and circuses,” corruption has been the very soul of a government program. Even philosophers agree. Eric Hoffer...

VIDEOS AT LINK............. If you’re going to read the comments, might as well have some fun with them. The #1 rule of working on the internet is to never read the comments. Somebody could put the winning lottery numbers in our comments and I would still lose because I would never see them. It’s usually just a cesspool of trolls, so there’s not really any point in diving into the comments to deal with that mess. But one news anchor has a different way of dealing with the trolls. Carissa Codel, a morning news anchor from Missouri, has gone viral...

California officials are warning foragers after an outbreak of poisoning linked to wild mushrooms that has killed one adult and caused severe liver damage in several patients, including children. The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely caused by death cap mushrooms, the health department said Friday. The toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste. “Death cap mushrooms contain potentially deadly toxins that can lead to liver failure," Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “Because the death cap can...

Doing the rounds on social media is the most disturbing ad I’ve ever seen. And I’m telling you about it because you need to be forewarned, just in case this Christmas a child or a grandchild happens to mention that it might be an idea to record a video for posterity, and opens the 2wai app. 2wai is the company responsible for the ad, and the service it offers is the creation of AI versions of family members so that relatives can talk to them after they’re dead. Catch ’em while they’re still alive, says 2wai; film a three-minute interview...

Damage to the cornea from infections, injury, or genetic disorders can lead to blindness – and often requires a transplantArteum.ro / Unsplash View 2 Images In a major breakthrough in human tissue replication, for the first time ever a 3D-printed cornea has been transplanted onto a legally blind patient's eye, successfully restoring their sight. That's from Rambam Eye Institute in Haifa, Israel, which worked with a company called Precise Bio that specializes in regenerative tech and bio-fabricated tissues. This procedure, completed towards the end of October, involved a corneal implant grown entirely from cultured, living human corneal cells, rather than...

During a routine home renovation, contractors in Ollala, Washington, were shocked to come across a small case containing a plethora of explosives. Contractors renovating Washington state home discover case of live military grenades packed with TNT Mystery surrounds discovery of military-style explosives at Washington state property as authorities investigate how live grenades ended up in home. WWW.FOXNEWS.COM https://www.foxnews.com/us/contractors-renovating-washington-state-home-discover-case-live-military-grenades-packed-tnt The homeowners, who had just purchased the home, were equally surprised by the discovery and called 911 to report the explosives. The Kitsap County Sheriff's Office responded, and after inspecting the case, Sheriff's Deputies called in the bomb squad and the explosive...

What's new: Jury selection was set to begin on Monday morning for 22-year-old Darriynn Brown's capital murder trial for the death of 4-year-old Cash Gernon. Instead, Brown pleaded guilty to a lesser murder charge and was immediately sentenced to life in prison. He does have the possibility of parole. 4-year-old Cash Gernon Murdered Darriynn Brown (2021) The backstory: Brown was charged with capital murder, as well as kidnapping and burglary, in connection to Gernon's death. In May 2021, Gernon's body was found stabbed to death on Saddleridge Drive, eight blocks from his home in a southwest Dallas neighborhood. "The sweetest...

Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce is set to marry Taylor Swift in the Watch Hill neighborhood of Westerly, Rhode Island on Saturday, June 13, 2026, according to multiple reports Saturday. The venue, Ocean House, is a glamorous, Victorian-style luxury hotel where the couple has spent plenty of time, per Harper's Bazaar. The date, of course, is a nod to the superstar’s lucky number, 13. There were rumors that Swift's desired date of June 13 was already held for another bride and groom and that she and Kelce dropped a pretty penny to buy the date from them....

The European Union has moved this week to punish the social media company X and Elon Musk for allegedly “deceiving users” through certain company practices. On Thursday, X, which was formerly known as Twitter, was fined €120 million ($140 million) by the European Union for violating one of the international organization’s laws regulating technology companies. The move makes the social media platform the first company to be fined under the jurisdiction of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). “Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. The DSA...

The ABA’s left-wing bias targets Catholic law schools, exposing the need for reform in America’s politicized legal education system. Last month, Florida Attorney General James Uttmeier made public a letter to the American Bar Association (“ABA”) accusing it of violating the First Amendment right to religious freedom when it said a Catholic law school did not meet one of its equal opportunity accreditation standards. The school is Florida’s St. Thomas University College of Law, and the standard is number 205, titled “Non-discrimination and Equal Opportunity.” The ABA’s finding did not specify how St. Thomas fell short. Standard 205 is distinct...

"[The current FBI] was competent at cracking the case; [Christopher Wray's] was competent at corruption and obstructing it." —Mike Benz. Dressed for government work?Do you have any idea what tapestry of corruption and crime is attached to the little thread of the J6 / DNC / RNC pipe bomber suspect arrested yesterday by the FBI? Consider this: suspect Brian Cole, Jr., is alive and probably talking, unlike, say, Jeffrey Epstein and Thomas Matthew Crooks in other matters of public interest. Let’s hope he is under FBI protection in custody, lest something. . . say. . . happen to him. As...

And its totalitarian assaults on free speech represent a national security threat to the United States. European civilization is dying. The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy makes this clear. It has squandered its post-WWII economic and military assistance from the United States by investing in centralized, socialist bureaucracies and expansive welfare States. By chasing the “climate change” con as a means for European governments to justify total control over the drivers of economic growth, European nations have forsaken cheap energy exploration, private entrepreneurship, and technological innovation. By depending upon the United States to defend its territorial interests, European nations...