Free Republic

It happens every odd-numbered year, legislators descend on Austin. We all come fresh from winning our respective elections. We are elected by our constituents - voters - and we come to town with their issues and concerns in mind. This last legislative session, the Texas Legislature was ready to move on property tax reform. We were going to take action after hearing for years from Texans that, “Property taxes are too high. Property taxes are pricing out Texans of the homes they bought.” Senate Bill 2, which the legislature passed, requires many local taxing units - cities and counties -...

Bernie Sanders leads the race for the Democratic nomination. He may become America's first self-described "democratic socialist" president.What does that mean?Today, when Sanders talks about socialism, he says: "I'm not looking at Cuba. I'm looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden."But Denmark and Sweden are not socialist. Denmark's prime minister even came to America to refute Sanders' claims, pointing out that "Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy."Both Denmark and Sweden do give citizens government-run health care and have bigger welfare programs than America has. However, recently, they've moved away from socialism. Because their socialist policies killed economic growth, they...

George Zimmerman sues Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren for $265 million George Zimmerman wants a day in court against two of the leading Democratic presidential contenders, accusing them of defamation. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Florida, the man who killed Trayvon Martin in self-defense in 2012 accused Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of “maliciously defam[ing]” Mr. Zimmerman, using the killing “as a pretext to demagogue and falsely brand Zimmerman as a white supremacist and racist to their millions of Twitter followers.” Mr. Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges on traditional self-defense grounds, because Martin attacked him and beat his...

A recent Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of American adults think colleges and universities are having a positive effect on our nation. The leftward political bias, held by faculty members affiliated with the Democratic Party, at most institutions of higher education explains a lot of that disappointment. Professors Mitchell Langbert and Sean Stevens document this bias in "Partisan Registration and Contributions of Faculty in Flagship Colleges." Langbert and Stevens conducted a new study of the political affiliation of 12,372 professors in the two leading private and two leading public colleges in 31 states. For party registration, they...

After a campaign ad touted the ex-NYC mayor as “incredibly sensitive” to the LGBTQ community, a video resurfaced of Bloomberg referring to transgender people as “he, she or it” and “some guy in a dress” — the second time he’s been caught making such comments. Bloomberg used the language to warn 2020 Democratic hopefuls against stressing transgender issues, arguing that they wouldn’t play well in middle America. “If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning...

Archaeologists excavating the Roman Forum have discovered an underground shrine dedicated to Romulus, the founder of the ancient city.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been rising drastically in the national polling for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Frightened by that rise, Democratic candidates from center-left to communist have risen as one, declaring that Bloomberg has done the process dirty: By dropping hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, he has thwarted the process, and thus, the will of the people. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proclaimed: "It's a shame Mike Bloomberg can buy his way into the debate. But at least now primary voters curious about how each candidate will take on Donald Trump can get a live...

"This I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment" (Phil. 1:9). Christian love operates within the parameters of Biblical knowledge and spiritual discernment. As a Christian, you are a repository of divine love. More than anything else, your love for God and for other believers marks you as a true disciple of Jesus Christ (John 13:35). In addition to possessing God's love, you have the privilege and responsibility of expressing it to others on His behalf. That's a sacred trust. Paul qualifies it in Philippians 1:9, which tells us love is...

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Senate Democrats are privately acknowledging that President Trump will be very tough to beat in November if the economy stays strong and he draws on the substantial advantages of running as an incumbent. Publicly, Democratic lawmakers are putting on a brave face, but behind closed doors anxiety is mounting over the unraveling of former Vice President Joe Biden’s White House bid and the failure of impeachment to put a dent in Trump’s approval ratings. One of the chief concerns is that Trump, who has a virtually uncontested path to the Republican nomination, will have a big head start to prepare...

Women's clothing retailer M.M.LaFleur is working to take one thing off of the to-do list of women running for public office. The company announced this week that it will lend its clothing to any woman on the campaign trail this spring for free. "We never purport that clothes help move the needle on female representation, but we want to do our part to make things a tiny bit easier," said the brand's founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur in an email Monday night. LaFleur explained in the message that the day after the 2016 presidential election, the brand reached out via...

THINK GASOLINE IS SO EXPENSIVE This is priceless! All these examples do NOT imply that gasoline is cheap; it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are. You will be really shocked by the last one (at least, I was)!!! Think a gallon of gas is expensive? This makes one think, and also puts things into perspective. Diet Snapple, 16 oz. , $1.29 ... $10.32 per gallon! Starbuck's Reg. Coffee 16 oz., $2.10... $16.80 per gallon! Lipton Ice Tea, 16 oz. , $1.19 ... $9.52 per gallon! Gatorade, 20 oz. , $1.59 .... $10.17 per gallon! Ocean Spray, 16 oz. ,...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday announced measures to end a programme that allowed foreign countries to send imams and teachers to provide services without supervision in France in a bid to crack down on what he called the risk of "separatism". During a visit to the eastern French city of Mulhouse, Macron said the government sought to combat “foreign interference” in how Islam is practiced and the way its religious institutions are organised in the secular country. "The problem is when in the name of a religion, some want to separate themselves from the Republic and therefore not respect...

**SNIP** "Historic resistance from Democrats, the media and even some Republicans has made your accomplishments even more monumental," Gunasekara wrote. "I am increasingly concerned with the rhetoric from the far-left supportive of Venezuelan-style socialism, government take-overs and crony 'green new deals' that do little for the environment and threaten our economic success." **SNIP** Appearing on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Nye said Gunasekara's environmental policies were "striking" given that she and her husband have two young kids who will "inherit the Earth." He noted that these children are going to have to interact with their mother, who has been a...

PERTH, Australia -- Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the “top levels” of the Malaysian government long suspected that the disappearance of a plane almost six years ago was a mass murder-suicide by the pilot. Abbott was prime minister when Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 carrying 239 people vanished on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Australia, working on Malaysia’s behalf, coordinated what became the largest search in aviation history, but it failed to find the plane before being ended in 2017. Speaking in a Sky News documentary to air on Wednesday and Thursday, Abbott...

Billionaire Democrat Michael Bloomberg has bankrolled a network of climate-change lawyers who are operating out of the offices of attorneys general in liberal states, West Virginia state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey claimed Tuesday, calling the Bloomberg setup "absolutely outrageous." "[W]hat you are doing is, you're outsourcing who is running the government to people who are not accountable to the voters," Morrisey said during an appearance on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle." "It's unacceptable on so many levels." There would be public and media outrage if a corporation like ExxonMobil decided to fund similar attorneys, but for the opposite reasons, Morrisey...

A Milwaukee man was charged Sunday with shooting two kids who threw snowballs at his car last month. William Carson, 24, faces two counts of first-degree reckless injury and five counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, all felonies. Several children were playing in the snow on Jan. 4 when they began lobbing snowballs at passing cars, prosecutors said. The driver of one vehicle that was struck got out and began firing a handgun as the kids ran away. A 13-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were hit in the thigh and forearm, authorities said. A third child was grazed by a...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Healthcare, Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

Former Vice President Joe Biden was confronted by a group of chanting immigrant rights protesters outside a campaign event Tuesday night in Las Vegas' Chinatown. Biden had headlined an event tailored to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at Harbor Palace Seafood Restaurant, but as he walked outside to take pictures with the crowd that had gathered he was approached by a group of undocumented activists, shaming him for not committing to halt deportations. About 10 women from the group United We Dream Action yelled and scream-talked in the direction of Biden and held up a banner that read 'Biden Commit...

In the Second Intermediate Period (18th-16th centuries B.C.E.), towards the end of the Middle Bronze Age, the West Asian (Canaanite) Hyksos controlled Lower (Northern) Egypt. In the 16th century, Ahmose I overthrew the Hyksos and initiated the XVIII dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt. Recent archaeological discoveries at Tel Habuwa (also known as Tell el-Habua or Tell-Huba), a site associated with ancient Tjaru (Tharo), shed new light on Ahmose's campaign. A daybook entry in the famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus notes that Ahmose seized control of Tjaru before laying siege the Hyksos at their capital in Avaris. Excavations at the...