Free Republic

Someone should do a wellness check on The New York Times. Looks like its journos read the portents wrong — AGAIN — on another one of its apocalyptic prognostications on the economic consequences of President Donald Trump taking out the Islamist regime in Iran. Times business reporter Emmett Lindner nonsensically tried to dig up the corpse of the 1970s oil price shock following the Yom Kippur War as a comparative case study to what is transpiring around the Persian Gulf as Israel and the U.S. decimate Iran’s war machine. “Echoes of the ’70s in What’s Now the Largest Oil Shock...

Has anyone put Openclaw on their MacOS? It seems beyond my skill set.

Trump supporters who backed his promise to avoid new Middle East wars worry Iran’s attacks on shipping are pushing the U.S. toward escalation — and maybe even boots on the ground.When the U.S. started firing Tomahawk missiles at Iran late last month, many of President Donald Trump’s allies hoped it would be a quick, surgical operation, similar to last year’s strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities or the ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro in January. Though uneasy, they were reassured by the belief that Trump’s open-ended objectives gave him the flexibility to declare victory whenever he saw fit. Now, more...

The US Department of the Treasury completed a record $14.7 billion debt buyback operation on March 10, 2026 with settlement on March 11, 2026. This marks the largest single Treasury buyback in history. The operation targeted nominal coupon securities maturing between April 15, 2026, and February 29, 2028. The Treasury had announced a maximum par amount of $15 billion to be redeemed, but accepted $14.697 billion in par value from offers totaling nearly $41 billion submitted by participants. This buyback is part of the Treasury’s regular debt management strategy, which includes: Improving liquidity in the massive US Treasury market over...

The SAVE America Act, if passed, will require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. That seems like common sense. Not only because it is, but because it’s common. Pew Research Center found 83% of Americans support it. Gallup found 84—including 98% of Republicans, 84% of independents, and 67% of Democrats. The House passed it. By any measure, it is one of the most broadly popular pieces of legislation in recent memory. But in late February 2026, a reporter for Punchbowl News named Andrew Desiderio published a piece declaring the bill had “almost no chance of becoming...

Donald Trump's top counterterrorism official has resigned in protest over the Iran war, accusing Israel and its 'powerful American lobby' of pressuring the US into a conflict he says was built on lies. Joseph Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Iran posed no imminent threat and the war was started 'due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,' adding: 'I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war.'

According to a senior Iranian official, Khamenei rejected proposals for reducing tensions or for a ceasefire with Washington, that were conveyed to Tehran by two intermediary countries. The new ayatollah's appetite for revenge against the US and Israel was 'very tough and serious' in his first foreign policy session, an official told Reuters, without clarifying whether the leader attended the session in person. The senior official, who asked not to be named, said the supreme leader had said it was not 'the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and...

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is trashing “ignorant” far-left New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her “tone-deaf” approach to Israel — and predicted she won’t challenge Big Apple Dem Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2028. “To accuse Israel [of] genocide, and you’re sitting in Germany, like, can you talk about tone deaf and just ignorant to the history?” Fetterman told podcast host Sean Hannity, referring to AOC’s disastrous gaffe-prone foreign-policy outing in Munich last month. “I mean, more than 6 million Jews [were massacred] — you know the Holocaust — and now to accuse Israel during that just war...

Thought I would start a thread about voter experiences today in Illinois. Were there any major delays in opening the polls at 6:00 AM? Were there any problems with the equipment setup or equipment malfunctioning? I had neither, but what I did notice is this time around signing for an in person ballot changed. Instead of signing a paper log book, I had to do an iPad scribble...

Most Americans can’t imagine their favorite restaurant just being out of certain foods. But the threat is closer than we think. It is difficult to imagine that the mighty United States could face threats to its seemingly abundant supply of grocery store and restaurant offerings. America has led the world in creating the modern industrial food system (known as “the Green Revolution”) and remains the world’s top food-exporting nation. Yet economic and logistical fractures have become visible, threatening to burst this illusion of plenty in a matter of moments. America’s farms have been quietly disappearing for decades, and productive farmland...

Lies, disinformation and fictional accounting are the order of the day as a desperate hard-Left UK government, aided by its pet Climate Change Committee, tries to keep its impossible Net Zero controlling agenda intact. The bedrock unproven science claims surround the suggestion that recent limited global warming presents an existential threat to the planet. Statistics are routinely tortured to produce claims of up to 1.7°C warming from the pre-industrial age, notable as reported in a recent silly ‘Trump’s brave new world’ article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph. In fact, temperatures have only risen by around 1.1°C over the last...

A school in Canada designated its cafeteria as a “no food space” to support fasting Muslim students during Ramadan — sparking a firestorm online as critics questioned the decree’s fairness. The Fairview School in Calgary, Alberta shot into the spotlight after reports emerged of the controversial policy that created food-free zones during select hours to accommodate students during the holy month. The cafeteria was labeled a “no food space” during the first half of the lunch hour for fourth through sixth graders. It remains a “no food space” for the older students’ entire lunch hour, according to a leaked email...

No BBC: Islamist Terror Hezbollah's attacks on Israel were not and are not "Retaliatory." BBC reporting [*] on March 15–16, 2026 (e.g., live coverage describing monitoring for "retaliatory strikes" in Israel and similar phrasing by anchors like Caitriona Perry on BBCAmerica referring to Hezbollah: "retaliated") has characterized Hezbollah's missile and rocket launches into Israel as "retaliatory." This framing is misleading and inverts the sequence of escalation in the current conflict. Hezbollah, an Islamic fascist Republic of Iran-established and Iran-backed Shia Islamist group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., UK, and others, initiated attacks on Israeli territory on March...

The noise that spooked spring breakers at Daytona Beach and caused a massive stampede over the weekend was not gunshots, the sheriff revealed Monday. The panic-causing sound had a much more mundane origin: people crushing water bottles. “There were zero gunshots on the beach,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Monday after video showing hundreds of terrified beachgoers fleeing for their lives went viral. Chitwood added that there were 50 deputies in the crowd.

While guaranteed income advocates push to extend pilot programs to permanent government-sponsored cash assistance, one recipient spoke with Fox News Digital about the benefits of the policy. Austin, Texas native Taniquewa Brewster was financially supported by the city’s guaranteed income program during a critical transition period in her life as she juggled parenthood, long work hours and hoped to finish certification programs. "It helped me start out — it gave me time to take care of things that I needed to take care of. It's hard when you're working 40 hours a week, and you have five children," Brewster told...

Public domain map showing area of the two bear attacks. On February 15, 2026, a Slovenian father and son used a handgun or handguns to defend against an attacking European brown bear, ursus arctos. From bernama.com:Environment state secretary Filip Kuffa said the father and son had been inspecting timber in a mountain forest with a hunting dog when the bear attacked unexpectedly.According to Mr Kuffa, the father fired several shots from his pistol in self-defence, but the bear knocked him to the ground and bit him repeatedly.His son then shot and killed the animal with a handgun.The incident has been...

The IDF confirmed on Tuesday that the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, and through the integration of unique operational capabilities, conducted a precise strike on Monday that eliminated Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iranian Supreme National Security Council, who operated as the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime. The strike was conducted while he was located near Tehran. Throughout the years, Larijani was considered one of the most veteran and senior figures within the Iranian regime leadership and was a close associate of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Following the elimination of Khamenei, Larijani consolidated his...

Exactly 60 years ago today, on March 11, 1966, a song that was widely embraced at the time was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. While ‘The Ballad of the Green Berets’ by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler was a huge success, the track would ultimately earn a reputation as one of the most divisive No. 1 songs in U.S. chart history. Released in January 1966, SSgt. Barry Sadler’s ‘The Ballad of the Green Berets’ quickly caught on with many listeners. After the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 5, 1966, it reached No. 1...

'Third-grade level fake news'. Trump dismisses report of tensions with Israel: Third-grade level fake news. US President rejects reports of tensions between the United States and Israel over the ongoing war against Iran during an interview with Channel 14. US President Donald Trump gave a phone interview to Israel’s Channel 14 on Sunday, sharply rejecting a report in Axios claiming that tensions have emerged between Washington and Jerusalem over the continuation of the war against Iran. “Wrong. Fake news. Third-grade fake news. The relationship has never been better," Trump said, adding that the campaign against Iran is progressing at a...

mong the many things I do in a retirement no less busy than the decades of work I finished in law-enforcement and teaching, is serving as head of security for my local church. The ministers of that non-mega church understand the very real danger Christians—all Americans—face these days simply for being Christian and a place where Americans regularly gather. The recent Michigan Synagogue attack has encouraged many Jews to take seriously terrorist attacks as I recently wrote in Jihadists and the media bomb. We are now facing an elevated threat of jihadist attacks in America, not only from terrorist nation-sponsored...