Free Republic

The massive spending deal, negotiated by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and agreed to by the president, looks poised to kill off the Budget Control Act of 2011—the law that was meant to restrain federal spending. With that law on the way out, the question arises: Where can fiscal conservatives turn to exert real and lasting fiscal discipline? Thankfully, two members of Congress have introduced a bill to do just that. The Maximizing America’s Prosperity Act—or MAP Act—is a bill proposed by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., that would limit federal spending...

When President Donald Trump begrudgingly signed a budget deal he called “ridiculous” in order to get increases for the military budget, he asserted: “I’m not going to do it again.” That was 16 months ago. Now, the Trump administration and House Democrats reportedly have reached a deal to suspend the debt limit temporarily and increase spending by more than $300 billion with only limited cuts. Around 5:45 p.m. in Washington, the president tweeted: "I am pleased to announce that a deal has been struck with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy...

Dive Brief: Six more contractors and designers have settled lawsuits for undisclosed amounts with victims' families and the survivors of the March 15, 2018, pedestrian bridge collapse at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, the Miami Herald reported. Among the companies that settled is FIGG Bridge Group, which designed the pedestrian span. The other five companies are Bolton Perez & Associates; Corradino Group; A&P Consulting Transportation Engineers Corp.; RLT Engineering Services LLC; and Gerdau Ameristeel US Inc. There are more than 20 defendants being sued in civil lawsuits in Miami-Dade Circuit Court for their alleged roles in the collapse. The...

When a dozen of conservatism’s best minds take on Socialism and expose it for the utopian fraud it is, attention must be paid. In a brief foreword to a special issue of National Review, Editor-in-Chief Richard Lowry admitted that many conservatives thought socialism in America had been “vanquished” after the collapse of Soviet Communism 30 years ago. But as T. S. Eliot insisted, “There is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause.” The experts examine socialism in its many guises, beginning with Charles Cooke’s blunt assessment that socialism is not...

First...they devalue the representation of the states / provinces by taking away the right of star governments to be represented on the federal level. Then they devalue the money by basing it off nothing but thin air... Then they devaule citizenship by treating illegal Invaders better than citizens, even counting them to determine apportionment.... Then it all collapses....

A new government report has given us a glimpse into our nation’s fiscal future, and the outlook is grim. Absent major reforms, America’s debt will only continue to balloon. The Congressional Budget Office released its updated long-term budget report on Tuesday, which projects the nation’s fiscal situation for the next 30 years. Despite the strong economy, the nation remains in a precarious and unsustainable budget position, just as it was last year. Debt held by the public is set to rise to nearly one and a half times the size of the economy in the coming decades. The report also...

FULL TITLE: One woman dies and six others are injured after wind gusts cause crane to collapse on Dallas apartment building One woman has died and six others are injured after a crane collapsed in Dallas amid severe thunderstorms. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans told the Dallas Morning News that the crane fell into a downtown apartment building Sunday afternoon as strong winds, heavy rain and hail battered parts of North Texas. The people's names and conditions were not immediately available. Amateur video taken on cell phones shows a crane toppling over and onto the Elan City Lights apartment complex,...

This year, Sen. Rand Paul's (R–Ky.) effort to balance the federal budget didn't even get a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Paul's so-called "Pennies Plan" failed a procedural vote on Monday evening when only 22 senators voted in favor of a cloture motion that would have brought the bill to a final vote. A majority of Republicans and all Democrats voted against proceeding to a floor vote on the bill. It's another sign that fiscal responsibility is all but dead in Congress, even as the national debt heads toward record highs and the budget deficit approaches $1 trillion this...

OPINION | FINANCE May 17, 2019 - 04:00 PM EDT Financial collapse of the United States Postal Service is coming BY KEVIN KOSAR, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill TWEET SHARE EMAIL The United States Postal Service (USPS) will run out of cash in five years. Postmaster General Megan Brennan shared this news in testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee earlier this month. The immediate consequence of USPS becoming insolvent would be that the world's largest postal system - which moves 150 billion mail pieces per year,...

Almost every factor that precedes the collapse of great civilizations has been met by the west.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9ohrBhhN4k

Do you know your place? In these days of hysterical Wokesterism, the question would surely provoke a riot of cowbell-clanging Antifa cadres, fainting spells in the congressional black caucus, and gravely equivocal op-eds from David Brooks of The New York Times. Yet it’s a central, unacknowledged quandary of our time that so many Americans have no place and suffer terribly from it. Human beings need a place in the social order, in the economic order, and in actual geography in order to function optimally in a life fraught with the normal challenges and difficulties that reality presents. Let’s take these places in...

The slow collapse of Venezuela, foreseen years ago by seasoned political scientists and analysts who have watched this story play out time and again whenever countries ditch capitalism for socialism, may finally be about to climax. Reports on Thursday claimed that the once-prosperous South American oil giant is now suffering widespread blackouts, which the conspiratorial and hapless president, Nicolas Maduro, is blaming on U.S. “sabotage.” Other reports said that food stocks in the country are so low that there’s only about a week’s worth left. “The suffering people of Venezuela are about to experience the most dramatic shortages they have...

On 14 August last year, the city of Genoa in northwest Italy woke to a strong summer storm. By 11.30am, the rain was so heavy that visibility had fallen dramatically. Videos captured by security cameras show vehicles slowing down as they crossed Morandi Bridge, which grew progressively more enveloped in a grey mist. A few minutes later, a 200-metre section of the bridge collapsed, including one of its three supporting towers. The tragedy killed 43 people and left 600 homeless. It also dealt a hammer blow to Italy’s once-proud engineering history – and the country’s confidence in its mastery of...

Full headline: Are America and the West headed toward collapse? New study finds startling similarities to fall of past civilizationsPredictions of America’s doom and gloom ahead are nothing new, as it’s always easier for us to see the glass as half-empty rather than half-full. So it’s not surprising that a new study has made a similar ‘prediction.’ But unlike many past analyses, a new look at an old study by historian Arnold Toynbee in his 12-volume magnum opus “A Study of History” examined his findings and identified key elements within each past great civilization that explained why they collapsed. In...

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review. More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century. The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported...

Author, art professor, feminist, and cultural commentator Camille Paglia speaks on the current transgender mania, the wisdom of early medical & surgical intervention (calling it "child abuse"), and how the explosion of gender identities is a recurring sign of cultural collapse throughout the history of civilization. (see 7 min video)

Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana.Supporters of America's long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No.Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison because weed has been legal in those states now for five years.More people in Colorado tried marijuana after legalization, but that's not a surprise.Colorado's crime rate did rise a bit. But many things influence crime rates. Washington state's violent crime rate rose a little but slightly less than the national average.In California, people I interviewed said legalization made the streets safer. "It's cleaned up the corner,"...

A silver mask that had belonged to a Roman cavalryman of imperial times. It was found on the site of the battle of Teutoburg, fought in September 9 A.D. This year marks the 2000th anniversary of the battle that led to the annihilation of three Roman legions and changed forever the history of Europe. It was a tremendous shock for the Romans, who saw their mighty army destroyed by uncivilized barbarians. It was not yet the peak of the Roman Empire, but it was a first hint that something was deeply wrong with it. This text describes the presentation that...

CLEMSON, SC (WSPA) - 30 People were taken to the hospital Sunday morning after a floor collapsed during a party at an apartment complex. It happened around 12:30 am at The Woodlands Apartments on Old Greenville Highway. According to Clemson City Police Department, a private party was being held in the Clubhouse when at some point the floor collapsed and crashed to the second level of the building. So far, there is no life-threatening injuries being reported. The investigation is on-going.

Last week, federal authorities fined Munilla Construction Management $25,868 for “serious” safety violations in its role as the contractor on the Florida International University bridge that collapsed in March, killing six people. The morning after the collapse, Juan Perez, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said the department’s homicide squad would explore criminal charges for contractors such as MCM. “We’ve got to look at the reality that there may be some negligence down the line,” Perez said. Perez answers to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who appointed him director in January 2016. Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida where the...