Free Republic

Germany's economy picked up speed and afforded the government a big surplus in 2015 - which will be put straight towards spending on refugees. [...] In concrete terms, GDP amounted to €3.027 trillion in 2015, the first time ever that it has topped the three-trillion mark, (the federal statistics office) Destatis said. [...] Under current plans, the federal government will spend roughly €8 billion on refugees in 2016. That's made up of around €3.3 billion in extra federal spending on unemployment and other benefits, plus €4.3 billion for the states and municipalities. ...

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, at least five times Tuesday while U.S. Navy sailors were in Iranian custody, a senior State Department official told reporters Wednesday. In the course of his conversations, the official said Kerry told Zarif: "If we are able to do this the right way, we can make this into what will be a good story for both of us" and would be a way for Iran to prove it can act in a responsible manner in this type of situation. The calls, which took place over...

After confirming a liberal judge to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week as their first act of 2016, Senate Republicans are prepared to confirm yet another liberal judge next week. And once again, they are sneaking it in as the first vote on Tuesday so that opponents can't mobilize. Welcome to Orwell's "1984" where the opposition party is not really the opposition party. On Tuesday afternoon, Republicans will vote to confirm Wilhelmina Marie Wright, a sitting member of the Minnesota state Supreme Court, to the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. Just who is...

One of the three winners of the record-breaking Powerball lottery jackpot in the United States became wealthy overnight thanks to the generosity of her boss, one of the American Jewish community’s leading philanthropists. Shlomo Rechnitz, a health care magnate who owns 80 assisted living facilities throughout California, purchased nearly 18,000 lottery tickets for all of his employees, one of which happened to contain the winning numbers. The unprecedented $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot will be divided among three winning tickets purchased in Tennessee, California and Florida. Each ticket is worth $528.8 million, lottery officials said in California, one of 44 states...

The elite Wall Street bank announced on Thursday it reached a $5.1 billion deal to put to rest claims made by the government over its toxic mortgage deals. ... Goldman said it has agreed to pay a $2.4 billion civil penalty, pay $875 million in cash and provide $1.8 billion in consumer relief.

AUSTIN, Texas – A black Texas middle-school student threw a temper tantrum in a video that also shows adults seemingly unwilling to do anything to restore civility. User bklynblke posted a nearly 3 minute tirade to LiveLeak Monday showing the young girl climb on top of tables in the Westview Middle School cafeteria before going off on a profanity-laced rant against school officials and law enforcement, repeatedly challenging them to "touch me, I dare you." VIDEO The video appears to have been recorded by a student sitting at an adjacent table, where other students seem unconcerned, as if it's just...

Second look at Trump? Donald Trump reacted to criticism from Republican presidential primary challenger Cruz Wednesday, saying that he equates "New York values" to "energy" that helped the city to persevere after the September 11th attacks. "One thing it means is energy. You know, when the World Trade Center got hit, we rebuilt that World Trade Center and we got through and very few places in this world could have gotten through what we went through. I mean, I was so proud of New York, the World Trade Center, these two massive, 110 story buildings come down, thousands of people...

Also stirring the pot is Al Sharpton, who just like last year, came out with a diatribe against the whiteness of the movie industry. Through his National Action Network, the reverend gives his condemnation of Hollywood and proves that his efforts with Sony didn't work: "Hollywood is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher up you get the whiter it gets and this year's Academy Awards will be yet another Rocky Mountain Oscars."

Mama needs a brand-new bag! According to a recent study by Baghunter, the legendary Hermès Birkin bag is a better investment than both gold and stocks. The luxury site compared the returns on the three investments over a 35-year period, and, as it turns out, the value of the Birkin, which starts at $11,000 on Baghunter, has never decreased. In fact, while the values of gold and the stocks have fluctuated, the top-handle tote's value has steadily increased more than 500 percent in the last three and a half decades. That makes for an average annual increase of 14.2 percent,...

Officials discovered another mass grave in Sinjar, Iraq, containing bodies of Yazidis, including children, who refused to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). CNN toured the town with Mayor Mahama al-Shangali. He showed Nima Elbagir a new mass grave filled with at least 130 bodies of men, women, and children. The Islamic State wanted to take these people to Tal Afar, but they resisted. Elbagir reports: But they refused to go. So they were killed, young and old alike. Standing at the gravesite, I could still see tossed on the ground the cloth ties that bound their hands. The prayer beads...

Behold "The Freedom Girls" performing at a Trump rally in Florida yesterday morning. It's very reminiscent of another one you may recall from 2009. We on the right used as an example of how Obama had, for many, transcended merely being a political figure and had become a hero of mythological proportions to his worshippers. I'm sure many of his sycophants will pretend there is a difference between a worshipful, outrageous, child-sung battle hymn at a rally for that person and thus officially sanctioned by the subject of the song vs a worshipful, outrageous, child-sung musical history at a tax-payer...

Bob Dole ran for president each time the job was open - in 1996, 1988, and 1980, and for vice president in 1976, forty years ago. He always lost. Honored for his heroic service in World War II, Dole two months ago - notably on Veterans Day - endorsed Jeb Bush. It had as much effect on the race as George Pataki's withdrawal. And last month, Dole said he would not vote for Donald Trump or Ted Cruz against Hillary - and further, ever gracious toward Democrats, said that Barack Obama is "a very good man." Dole's conduct thus explains...

“In 2008 there were about a million [ABAWDs] now they’re at about 4.7 million. This is the most rapid growing part of the caseload,” Rector said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News Wednesday, previewing his upcoming report on food stamp use among ABAWDs. “ABAWDs are largely young adults who don’t work or are working off the books and hiding that income. They get a maximum of about $200 a month from the food stamp program,” Rector said, adding that this group of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or food stamp users cost taxpayers up to $11 billion a year....

Over the past several weeks, we have learned that the Obama administration believes it is at war with Israel. The war is not a shooting war, but a political war. Its goal is to bring the government to its knees to the point where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loses power or begs Obama and his advisers to shepherd Israel through a “peace process” in which Israel will renounce its rights to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. One component of this war is espionage. Last monthThe Wall Street Journal reported that Israel is a top target for American espionage. The other component...

If there is such thing as a "hockey stick" graph, it charts the disappearance of freedom, opportunity, prosperity and hope of the American middle class during the last 50 years. In 2008 Americans sleepwalked to the polls and elected a man who by his history, family, friends and even his own words left little doubt that his mission was to destroy everything that America has traditionally stood for. We entered the steep part of the graph. The slow motion suicide that America has been committing since the mid 1960's is no longer slow motion. In 2012 with Republican help they...

Rene Angelil, the husband and former manager of singer Celine Dion, died Thursday. A brief statement on Dion’s website said Angelil died at home in Las Vegas from cancer. He was 73 years old. "We have asked [doctors] many times, how long does he have, three weeks, three months? Rene wants to know," Dion said in an August interview with USA Today. "But they say they don't know." He was first diagnosed with throat cancer in the late 90s. He underwent surgery to remove a tumor from his throat in 2014,

Congressional Republican leaders have confirmed they intend to hold a vote to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the bill to defund Planned Parenthood on January 26, four days after the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. The bill, which the House of Representative passed on January 6 by a 240 to 181 vote and the Senate in December by 52 to 47, would place a one-year moratorium on Planned Parenthood’s more than $500 million per year in federal tax funding, as well as repeal many major components of Obamacare, which also helps subsidize abortions. Obama vetoed the bill...

The hatchets are out for Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).In their desperation to stop the chief rival to Donald Trump and Marco Rubio/Chris Christie/John Kasich/Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination, both the Trump crowd and the establishment Republicans have now unleashed a barrage of scurrilous attacks on Cruz. I have no problem with hard-nosed politics. But I despise cheap and false campaign hits, and have defended candidates including Trump, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio from such nonsense.Now, I'll have to defend Cruz on three fronts.Eligibility. Trump raised the eligibility question several weeks ago as a ridiculous ploy to distract attention from...

Barack Obama new mantra epitomizes a failed presidency in four words. “Things are not terrible.” Run with that Obama.