Free Republic

The more the left rages, the more Trump rises—while Democrats trade policy for tantrums and canonize chaos in place of compromise. California Senator Alex Padilla recently crashed a press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He deliberately wore no identification. He gave no advance warning that he would disrupt her briefing. Instead, Padilla barged forward to the podium, shouting about the deportation of illegal aliens. Immediately, Padilla got his media moment wish—once Secret Service agents, who had no idea who Padilla was, forcibly removed him. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) recently attempted a pseudo-filibuster, speaking nonstop for 25 hours straight—not...

With federal immigration sweeps showing no signs of slowing across Southern California, there is growing concern from top officials, spiritual leaders and business owners that a climate of fear was sending more people underground and changing the rhythm of city life.Once-bustling immigrant hubs, including MacArthur Park, the Garment District, downtown’s produce market and areas of the Eastside have seen a noticeable reduction in foot traffic over the last week, with some businesses forced to close as a result.It comes as social media is rife with videos of people spotting immigration agents at shopping centers, markets and neighborhood streets, and capturing...

BARCELONA (AP) — Iran is boasting that it has hypersonic missiles and says it already has begun firing the cutting-edge weapons at Israel.There is no evidence that Iran has unleashed the missiles, and experts are skeptical of the claim.But the use of these fast-moving projectiles could test Israel’s vaunted missile-defense system and alter the course of the fighting between the two bitter enemies.Here’s a closer look at these advanced weapons:What is a hypersonic missile and what makes them so feared?Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed Wednesday that it had fired what it said were hypersonic “Fattah 1” missiles toward Israel. But...

The Black Lives Matter mural on Center Street in front of Santa Cruz City Hall has a bright new feel this week thanks to volunteers who worked together earlier this month at a community event organized by SC Equity Collab to repaint the iconic message in downtown Santa Cruz.

Americans don’t have time for Barrett to spend years figuring out what kind of justice she wants to be. What kind of Supreme Court justice is Amy Coney Barrett going to be?That appeared to be the question a new expose by New York Times hack Jodi Kantor attempted to answer. Published Sunday, the lengthy article features analysis of the Trump appointee’s SCOTUS record thus far, as well as comments from former associates and Court watchers on her jurisprudence and how she approaches legal questions. The goal, as it seems, is to decipher whether the Catholic mother of seven will follow...

~So much for the G7. The war? Well, strange as it may seem on the 24/7 hamster wheel, my view hasn't changed since last week: I am in favour of Israel's victory over Iran - just as the region's Sunni monarchies are. However, I am opposed to any direct American participation because the United States is the most incompetent warmonger on the planet. If that comes as news, well, you haven't been paying attention - since VJ Day. Hilarious headline in today's Spectator: Why is the US so reluctant to fight Iran? Short answer: because it hasn't won anything that...

Israel says it first bombed Iran to stop it from being able to produce nuclear weapons and the “existential threat” they would represent. But the conflict may in the long run serve the opposite purpose: illustrating to Tehran and other nuclear-aspirant nations that nuclear weapons are essential in shielding them against attack. Countries such as North Korea already pointed to Libya, whose leader Moammar Gadhafi gave up his nascent weapons program but was toppled anyway in 2011 after a NATO intervention. That’s one of the reasons Pyongyang has developed its own arsenal — which is believed to have San Francisco...

War-weary Americans are worried their country is about to be dragged into another Middle East quagmire. Their concern is well founded. The United States military is already helping Israel shoot down Iranian missiles and moving more military assets into the region. MAGA support for President Donald Trump has remained consistent and bulletproof so far. But war with Iran may prove a red line for the president’s most loyal cohort. “I can tell you right now, our MAGA base does not want war,” MAGA influencer and founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk said Friday during a segment of his popular...

We Voted to Deport Every Single One of Them Kurt Schlichter Kurt Schlichter | Jun 16, 2025 It’s strange how I keep being told by the regime media and Democrat political flunkies, to the limited extent that those are different things, about how I didn’t vote for what Donald Trump is doing to illegal aliens. I keep hearing about how I don’t want ICE raiding Home Depots, factories, and non-Beatles strawberry fields or sending away 30-year illegal aliens or illegal alien honor students. I’m told that Donald Trump only promised to deport criminal aliens – in the sense that they...

Iran bet on bluff and delay—but lost its proxies, deterrence, and leverage, leaving a regime rich in threats but bankrupt in power. Iran apparently had not adjusted to its new 2025 status—or maybe it had. Most of its bought terrorists are currently either destroyed or anemic. There is no more ascendant Iranian “Shia crescent” in the Middle East. Russia is no longer a Middle East power, patron, and protector. The Assad dynasty imploded, flipping Syria from an Iranian proxy into a likely Iranian enemy. Hezbollah, once supposedly the most fearsome of all the Iranian terrorist tentacles, was humiliated and neutered...

If you think Israel and Iran are "trading blows" you've misunderstood the situation in the Middle East.Israel and Iran are not “trading blows” as some have phrased it. Israel is dealing strategic devastation on Iran, eliminating much of the terrorist regime’s military top brass and key nuclear scientists , and attacking nuclear weapons sites, air defence systems, and offensive drone and missile capabilities.Meanwhile Iran is lashing out with drones and ballistic missiles, fired into Israel’s population centres, deliberately killing and wounding civilians in places like Tel Aviv, the most densely populated city in the country. Here, for the last two...

Intraparty fighting is threatening to stall the Democratic Party’s efforts to rebuild seven months after President Trump’s sweeping general election victory. The party has also been roiled by revelations and questions about the last months of former President Biden’s administration and whether he was in the midst of a cognitive decline. They also will have to contend with a number of high-profile primaries in the year ahead. And ousted Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg has been at the center of controversy, using his political group to challenge incumbent House Democrats. History suggests Democrats have a chance to win...

An estimated 50,000 people marched across New York City as part of nationwide protests against the Trump administration, according to early estimates from the NYPD. The demonstrations took place on city streets largely without incident. NBC New York’s Chris Jose report What to Know Protests against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies have been ongoing in New York City and across the country since last weekend, when unrest erupted in Los Angeles and the president ordered in the National Guard. Demonstrations are taking place nationwide on Saturday for what organizers are calling 'No Kings Day' with the goal of protest...

Before Israel launched an unprecedented wave of strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities and top military leaders this week, its spies were already on the ground in enemy territory. Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had smuggled weapons into Iran ahead of the strikes, according to Israeli security officials, and would use the weapons to target Iran’s defense from within. The officials said Israel established a base for launching explosive drones inside Iran, and the drones were later used to target missile launchers near Tehran. Precision weapons were also smuggled in and used to target surface-to-air missile systems, clearing the way for Israel’s...

The Trump administration has abruptly shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, according to an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance. The decision suggested that the scale of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign — an issue that is at the heart of his presidency — is hurting industries and constituencies that he does not want to lose. The new guidance comes after protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms...

Political pundit Tucker Carlson doubled down on his criticism of Israel’s strikes against Iran, rebuking several media figures, including his former colleagues at Fox News, over what he described as their push for President Trump to engage in the region. “Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran,” Carlson wrote in a post on the social media platform X. “On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have...

There may be some changes coming to the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday that both farmers and "people in the Hotel and Leisure business" have said that his approach to immigration enforcement "is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace." "In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs," Trump added. "This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT...

The left’s martyr-making machine is in overdrive—recasting criminals, rioters, and radicals as victims, even as the public demands law, order, and sanity. The entire career of race-baiter Al Sharpton was founded on falsehoods about the Tawana Brawley scam. Nearly everything the left told us about the Trayvon Martin fight was false. The “hands up, don’t shoot” Ferguson fable and the Covington Kids myth were quickly exposed. The Duke Lacrosse and Jussie Smollett melodramas were laughable. Russian “collusion,” “laptop” disinformation, and Joe Biden “fit as a fiddle” gaslighting were utter lies. But more recently, the hard left lost its mind championing...

Texas Is Funding Its Own Demise $13 Million in State and Federal Money Handed to Islamic Mosques and Community Groups - Some Recipients Praise Hamas, Pledge Allegiance to Iran, and Are Not in Your State to Assimilate, but to Dominate. Many of these mosques are openly aligned with terrorist groups and regimes - including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Jamaat-e-Islami, and even the Iranian regime. While Texans struggle to preserve their culture, security, and values, the state government is quietly bankrolling the very forces determined to dismantle them. These are not fringe groups. They operate in the heart of Texas cities....

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans...