Free Republic

Baby Boomers are retiring. Most are now starting to take their pensions and Social Security. The more fortunate are beginning to dip into their IRAs and 401Ks. As we reach this milestone, our views tend to harden. We are growing less tolerant. Some may call it cranky. We don’t buy a lot of the nonsense that is shoved down our throats by so many of the so called experts on television. We frequently find ourselves yelling back at them. We are even less tolerant of all the politically correct BS. As our circulation slows, we look forward to spending more...

Baby Boomers are retiring. Most are now starting to take their pensions and Social Security. The more fortunate are beginning to dip into their IRAs and 401Ks. As we reach this milestone, our views tend to harden. We are growing less tolerant. Some may call it cranky. We don’t buy a lot of the nonsense that is shoved down our throats by so many of the so called experts on television. We frequently find ourselves yelling back at them. We are even less tolerant of all the politically correct BS. As our circulation slows, we look forward to spending more time in...

The newly-elected mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Council has come under attack over his attendance at IRA commemorations. Sean Bateson (26), who topped the poll for Sinn Féin in the Bann electoral area, was appointed mayor of the borough just days after being elected for his first term. Over the weekend, social media posts emerged which showed Mr. Bateson — who is a supply teacher at Sperrin Integrated College in Magherafelt — posing for photographs at a memorial to two IRA men. A Twitter post boasting about tearing down a Union flag — described as a “butcher’s apron” by...

Most journalists and other Democrats say it is racist and unfair to ask on the census form whether people living in the United States are here legally. The ACLU, in its arguments to the court, says you can't ask the question because we are a nation of laws.  Is that a joke?  You can't ask people if they have violated our laws because we are a nation of laws? Court Blocks Trump's Plan to Add a Citizenship Question to 2020 Census A federal court has blocked the Trump administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, stating that it constitutes...

Former Irish republican fighter and asylum seeker Malachy McAllister will not be deported from the U.S., according to a Washington report. Kevin McAleenan, President Trump’s newly-appointed acting secretary of Homeland Security, has granted a request from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to stay the deportation of McAllister, the Washington Examiner reports. On Thursday, Schumer had called McAleenan asking him to overrule ICE's decision not to grant McAllister political asylum...

WASHINGTON—The top Democrat on the Senate’s tax-writing committee wants to tax long-term investments like other types of income, raising rates and requiring the wealthiest people to pay taxes on their unrealized gains each year. The plan from Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon is the latest proposal from Democrats in Congress and on the presidential-campaign trail to boost taxes on the wealthy in a bid to address what they view as the problems of economic inequality and provide a funding stream to pay for new programs. While the specific proposal has little chance to become law anytime soon, such ideas could...

Congress is making another push on legislation that could make it easier for small companies to offer 401(k) plans and for workers to guarantee themselves an annual income after they retire. A bipartisan group of lawmakers including Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced Friday the legislation would repeal the age cap for contributing to individual retirement accounts, currently 70½. It would also increase the age at which owners of tax-deferred retirement accounts are required to start taking withdrawals from those accounts to 72 from 70½. Because the measure has support from key...

Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday for funding a group linked to a “highly disturbing” effort that spread disinformation during last year’s Alabama special election for U.S. Senate, but said he was not aware that his money was being used for this purpose. Hoffman’s statement is his first acknowledgement of his ties to a campaign that adopted tactics similar to those deployed by Russian operatives during the 2016 presidential election. In Alabama, the Hoffman-funded group allegedly used Facebook and Twitter to undermine support for Republican Roy Moore and boost Democrat Doug Jones, who narrowly won the race. Hoffman, the...

PINEVILLE, Mo. — Gregg Sweeten had difficulty last week putting his reaction into words. When he learned that funding for the long-sought Bella Vista Bypass had been found, Sweeten, the Pineville mayor and McDonald County emergency manager, was stunned. Then he was elated. "That is amazing," Sweeten said. "That is going to be so great. I think it’s going to lead to all kinds of opportunities not only for Pineville but for McDonald County. I mean, it’s just — I just can’t say how happy I am. Wow. That is ... that’s wild. That’s amazing. That’s a Christmas present right...

While the debate rages on over how much Russia really influenced the results of the 2016 presidential elections, one detail put the entire controversy in perspective: Democratic operatives spent an identical amount of money on their project to create a Russian bot “false flag” campaign during the Alabama 2017 special election. Multiple reports detailed the Russian government-backed Internet Research Agency spent up to $100,000 on Facebook advertisements throughout their entire disinformation operation. As The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Wednesday, billionaire-backed Democrats “created more than a thousand Russian-language accounts that followed [Roy] Moore’s Twitter account overnight.” The group of Democrats...

An Irish lawmaker was punished Thursday for voting to protect unborn babies from abortion. Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín voted against his party last week on a motion to move a pro-abortion bill forward for debate. His party, Sinn Féin, required its members to vote pro-abortion instead of their conscience on the legislation. For supporting the unborn rather than his party, Tóibín has been suspended for six months, The Irish Times reports. Sinn Féin Whip in the Dáil Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD criticized Tóibín on Thursday when he announced the suspension and called his vote “a serious breach of the...

The limit on annual contributions to an IRA has increased to $6,000 from $5,500 for the 2019 tax year, while the limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan is increased from $18,500 to $19,000.

The President of Ireland has led calls for a “culture of peace” as Omagh marks the 20th anniversary of the worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict. Twenty nine innocents, including a woman pregnant with twins, died when a massive car bomb ripped through the Co Tyrone town just months after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement was supposed to have largely ended violence. A splinter dissident republican group opposed to the peace process, the Real IRA, was blamed for the carnage after inaccurate warnings meant police evacuated shoppers towards the bomb site. Twenty years later, nobody has been...

The maximum monthly Social Security benefit for a person retiring in 2018, at their full retirement age, is $2,788 per month , or $33,456 per year. To achieve this benefit, you must have had the maximum taxable earning for a whopping 35 years. It is for this reason, that most people’s benefits will be far less. Forget this number if you plan to retire ahead of your full retirement age. Do you think you could live off $2,788 per month? Before you think about that, it’s important to note that the average check for 2018 is just $1,404 per month....

It's not too late to increase your take-home from America's most important social program. There's a really good chance you'll be reliant on Social Security when you retire. According to data from the Social Security Administration, 62% of today's aged beneficiaries lean on the program to provide at least half of their monthly income. Of these folks, 34% rely on Social Security for virtually all of their income (90% to 100%). As for future retirees, national pollster Gallup found a strong expected reliance in an April 2018 survey. When polling nonretirees, Gallup observed that 30% expect Social Security to be...

Social Security benefits can be claimed at any point after a recipient turns age 62, and most Americans take their Social Security as soon as they can. Claiming benefits early can be smart, but it can pay off to wait. If you're deciding when to start receiving Social Security, here's what to consider. Estimate your expenses Retirement usually means a big drop in income, and if you don't have a solid grasp on what your spending is going to look like in retirement, then you won't be able to make the best decision on when to claim. Depending on who...

At least three of the events co-organized on Facebook by a group the company now thinks was part of a coordinated disinformation network appear to have been held, and to have been attended by hundreds of people. The events, in New York City and Springfield, Mo., were all co-hosted on Facebook by a group called the Resisters. All three events were critical of President Trump. Archived versions of the event pages showed that 674 people responded on Facebook to say that they would attend the “We Stand with DREAMers! Support DACA!” event in New York on Sept. 9 last year....

All or nothing at all -- three-quarters of a country never appealed to him, nor did the idea of a political entity called Northern Ireland that was created in 1920, comprising the six northeastern counties of Ireland in the province of Ulster. Gerry Adams is still adamant about the need for a united Ireland. As a political entity, the Republic of Ireland, first called the Irish Free State, was created in 1922. On November 18, 2017 the 69-year-old Adams, president since 1983 of Sinn Fein, the left-wing political party, announced that it was time for a change and that he...

US Congress has released more than 3,000 Facebook ads purchased and created by the Internet Research Agency, a pro-Kremlin so-called troll factory... You may have expected hundreds or thousands of posts condemning Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and promoting Donald Trump, but that is not the case. Many of the ads were not directly politically related, and instead highlighted black and LGBT civil rights issues. They repeated the Black Lives Matters mantra, demanded stronger borders, and called for protests against homophobia and police brutality. Rather than outright back a particular candidate, instead many of the paid-for Facebook posts sought to...

Gerry Adams has stated that he still believes violence and the use of “armed actions” can still be justified to reach political aims — in certain circumstances. The former Sinn Féin president gave an interview to Hamburg-based newspaper Der Spiegel (The Mirror) reflecting on The Troubles, strife in Northern Ireland, and his stance on an array of issues including the use of violence. In the interview, which was conducted in the run up to the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement — April 10th — Adams vehemently denied every shooting anyone during The Troubles or being a member of...