Free Republic

This is an excellent 1982 documentary of mall culture in America. Could it have been so long ago (nearly 40 years!)? Before the Internet. Before cell phones. MTV was just getting started and most youngsters didn't even know what it was, much less have it. I remember those days well. The mall was the place for teens and young adults to hang out. It was where boys and girls dated. They'd start off at the Orange Julius at the food court and make their way to the multiplex, where they might see "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" or maybe "ET"....

resident Joe Biden on Saturday declared a major disaster in Texas as winter storms continue to wreak havoc on the state. Millions of Texas are without power and water due to freezing temperatures, which have resulted in frozen pipes and downed electrical grids. A majority of the state – 189 counties of the 254 that make up the state – are also under boil water notices. The major disaster declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide assistance to families and businesses in the 77 counties with the most damage. Federal assistance will come in the form of...

Kayleigh McEnany ditched her normal TV glam for a fresh face as she spent her last day as Trump’s press secretary running errands in Tampa, Florida, exclusive photos by DailyMail.com show. The 32-year-old said goodbye to Washington D.C. on Friday, as she was seen packing up her office in the West Wing that night. McEnany did not give a farewell press conference nor had she announced when she was leaving, but confirmed her exit on her personal Twitter account following media reports. The mother-of-one will remain on the payroll and finish up her last day from her home in Florida,...

State Representative Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) introduced a bill Wednesday that would both expunge the records of businesses cited for COVID violations and return fines and penalties paid. Upon its introduction, House Bill 127 was assigned to the House State and Local Government Committee on Thursday. HB127 does not contain an emergency provision, which means if it is passed in both the House and Senate and were approved by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine – or if it passes both chambers and is vetoed by DeWine but then overridden with supermajority votes in the General Assembly – the bill would go into...

LAS VEGAS – A county board voted unanimously Tuesday to rename busy McCarran International Airport after former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada. The all-Democratic Clark County Commission approved a measure directing the county’s airport staff to file a change with the Federal Aviation Administration renaming the facility Harry Reid International Airport. The county commission oversees the airport and is the final authority on a name change. There have been long-standing calls to rename the airport. Its current namesake, Patrick McCarran, served as one of Nevada’s two U.S. senators from 1933 until his death in 1954. He was known for...

Rolling back President Donald Trump's tougher immigration policies was one of President Joe Biden's main goals once his administration officially started. Talks of providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens during the first 100 days in office and rescinding the "Remain in Mexico" policy – where those applying for asylum remain in Mexican until a judge determines their fate – prompted Central American caravans to start up once again.But three Congressional Democrats in Texas are warning Biden about the backlash these decisions will have. They are concerned that the Democratic Party's "messaging and policy proposals are too much, too soon,"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zkrS1dfOVE

Freepers. Met with my CPA over the innerwebs today. A conservative, 30+ years in the biz.So they tell me what Team Biden is thinking of doing.Elimination of the Step Up in Basis, That is mind blowing.How many of you are keeping running ledgers of Assets and or improvements to hard assets aka real estate etc.? We have been running under the Step Up in Basis rule for some time now.It gets worse.You don't or can't come up with a basis? The IRS will assume Zero, that's right, you will pay tax on the full value of the asset.The only saving...

Breakfast doesn't always get a lot of attention. When parents are trying to get their kids ready for school and need something quick to put in their stomachs, cereal is often the go-to. With dozens of cold cereals aimed at kids, there's plenty of variety to choose from and among the most iconic of breakfast cereals is Cap'n Crunch. The bright red box with the mustached mascot in a captain's uniform has been promising a sugary and crunchy cereal that won't get soggy in milk for over 50 years. Cap'n Crunch is one of those cereals that these days, is...

We all know that something morally grotesque is swallowing liberal America. Almost no one wants to risk talking about it out loud. Every day I get phone calls from anxious Americans complaining about an ideology that wants to pull all of us into the past. I get calls from parents telling me about the damaging things being taught in schools: so-called antiracist programs that urge children to obsess on the color of their skin. I get calls from people working in corporate America forced to go to trainings in which they learn that they carry collective, race-based guilt — or...

Certain that yet another round of gun control laws are needed to reduce violent crime in the U.S., activists have forgotten two fundamental issues. The first is that people who murder, rape, rob, or assault pay little attention to our laws. Perpetrators of violent crime will not be stopped by anything but an opposing force. The second issue is that gun control laws have never been shown to be effective. Gun control advocates are adamant that the pages and pages of anti-2nd Amendment legislation are effective and the country needs more. No proof is needed; they just know it. The...

When District Attorney Larry Krasner showed up at Temple University Hospital, where a police officer died this morning, the fallen officer's comrades linked arms and wouldn't let Krasner in. Moments later, Fox 29 reporter Jenn Frederick, who was broadcasting live, asked Krasner on camera, "It appears that the police officers were literally keeping you outside." Krasner didn't answer the question; instead he looked right past the reporter and gave a robotic speech. "So the reason I'm here is we have a very serious incident involving a police officer," he said, stating the obvious. "I was here for the victim for...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) says that "the power failures in Texas wouldn't have occurred if we already had the Green New Deal in place. Over the past century an increasingly industrialized and consumer-oriented society has become more and more dependent upon the comfort and convenience provided by capitalistic exploitation of natural resources. The aim of the Green New Deal is to unchain the people from their reliance upon these comforts and conveniences." "If we were already living under the rules of the New Green Deal the cold and shivering that has shocked the residents of Texas would be the normal...

Federal agents seized $2.82 million worth of cocaine-coated corn flakes, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a news release on Friday. CBP officers in Cincinnati intercepted a large shipment of cereal that was headed to a private residence in Hong Kong from South America. Officers opened the box and saw cereal with white powder, with flakes coated in a “grayish substance.” They tested the flakes and the substance, and found that they contained cocaine. The shipment had 44 pounds of cocaine-coated corn flakes.

It will be difficult or even impossible to go back to a system where learning is actually a discipline that requires hard work and dedication. Public education in the United States, if measured by results, has been producing graduates that are less competent in language skills and dramatically less well taught in the sciences and mathematics since 1964, when Scholastic Aptitude Test scores peaked. The decline in science and math skills has accelerated in the past decade according to rankings of American students compared to their peers overseas. A recent assessment, from 2015, placed the U.S. at 38th out of...

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota expressed shock on her show “New Day” Friday when she heard a report concerning the systematic and brutal gang-raping and torture of women prisoners in internment camps in the Xinjiang province of China. The segment was with correspondent Ivan Watson and Camerota began the report with some background: “This morning, shocking allegations of gang-rape in detention camps in China. The U.S. government accuses China of the mass internment of up to 2 million members of mostly Muslim ethnic minority groups in recent years,” Camerota stated. “Part of a policy that the U.S. State Department says amounts to...

Earlier this week, news broke that Prince Harry will lose his honorary military titles as his and Meghan Markle's royal exit becomes permanent. The decision, which was made the Queen and announced by Buckingham Palace, is thought to be a disappointment for Harry, who had reportedly been trying to work out a way to maintain his military titles after the royal exit. Royal insiders worry that if Prince William is given the titles, it will only put more strain on his and Harry's relationship. This week, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will officially be removed from...

A Vancouver-based company, TraceSafe, is working with cruise lines to develop onboard contact tracing systems that could help the industry return to operations. TraceSafe, which specializes in wearable technology, has entered into a partnership with Tritan Software, a Miami company that provides health and medical operations to 95 percent of major cruise lines, as well as the commercial shipping, energy and mining industries. TraceSafe makes medallion wristbands, about the size of two poker chips stacked on top of one another, said Wayne Lloyd, CEO of TraceSafe Inc. The wearables use Bluetooth Low Energy, which uses very low power to let...

Anthony Orr was almost done with his high school coursework when the governor of Nevada ordered a statewide shutdown of nonessential businesses on March 17, 2020. "He was looking forward to all of the senior activities, prom and graduation," says his mother, Pamela Orr. But all he got was a "mini [graduation] ceremony," with only a handful of students walking, wearing masks and at a distance from each other. "That was the most we could do because of COVID," she says. Anthony graduated with honors as he had planned to, wearing a white robe and cap and an advanced honors...

Nikki Haley appears to have discarded her political career by faithfully following what establishment insiders and political “experts” have believed and taught for decades. The former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador seems genuinely baffled that former President Donald Trump refused to meet with her after Haley very publicly trashed Trump. Isn’t that simply how the game is played? Well, yes. Haley is doing things correctly the way they used to be done. You posture for the media, distance yourself from any controversy, then later patch it up after the storm blows past. You cynically abandon your friends, hoping that...