Free Republic

It's no secret that inflation is taking a bite out of Americans' wallets right now - and, even with wages rising over the past year, most salaries aren't keeping up with skyrocketing prices. But if your salary hasn't kept up with inflation, there might be a bit of relief come tax day in 2024. On Tuesday, the IRS released its inflation-adjusted guidelines for 2023, readjusting the tax brackets. For instance, the top tax rate of 37% stays the same, but the amount of income to qualify for it rose from $539,900 to $578,125. Meanwhile, the lowest rate of 10% will...

It was a sunny morning when about 200 people trudged up a hill in southern Argentina's Patagonia region with a singular mission: free two Andean condors that had been born in captivity. While members of the Mapuche, the largest Indigenous group in the area, played traditional instruments, and a group of children threw condor feathers into the air to symbolize their good wishes for the newly liberated birds, an eerie silence engulfed the mountain in Sierra Paileman in Rio Negro province as researchers opened the cages where the two specimens of the world’s largest flying bird were kept. **SNIP** The...

From Russia to the FBI, with Love How the FBI agent who spied for Russia set the stage for the FBI’s betrayal of the American people. Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the infamous dossier deployed against Donald Trump in 2016, was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI. If the verdict seems surprising, consider the back story. Danchenko, a Russian national, was once on the FBI payroll. As Julie Kelly explains, that made the Russian part of the bureau’s untouchable “sources and methods,” protecting him and any documents referencing him from congressional and other outside scrutiny. That invites a...

Nearly 20 bricks of suspected fentanyl, some marked with cable news network CNN’s logo, were seized at the southern border, according to officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Authorities said the packages were stopped at the Pharr International Bridge Cargo Facility in Texas on Thursday, Oct. 13, when officers encountered a commercial tractor-trailer arriving from Mexico. A border patrol officer ordered the tractor-trailer to pull over for further inspection using “non-intrusive inspection” equipment and screening by a canine team. As officers inspected the vehicle, they uncovered 19 packages of alleged fentanyl concealed within the tractor. Authorities said the packages...

Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy and the way elected officials are chosen — nearly two years after a divisive presidential election spurred false claims of widespread fraud and a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Only about half of Americans have high confidence that votes in the upcoming midterm elections will be counted accurately, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, though that’s an improvement from about 4 in 10 saying that just before the 2020 presidential election. Just 9% of U.S. adults think democracy is working “extremely”...

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden really got into the Q and A with his audience at the Columbia, SC, Rotary Club Monday (Nov. 27, 2006), wading out into the crowd to answer a question about immigration.

Fox News contributor Tammy Bruce reacts to reports first lady Jill Biden is vetting White House officials for the president on 'The Faulkner Focus.'

Getting less than five hours of sleep in mid-to-late life could be linked to an increased risk of developing at least two chronic diseases. People who reported getting five hours of sleep or less at age 50 were 20% more likely to have been diagnosed with a chronic disease and 40% more likely to be diagnosed with two or more chronic diseases over 25 years, compared to people who slept for up to seven hours. Additionally, sleeping for five hours or less at the age of 50, 60, and 70 was linked to a 30% to 40% increased risk of...

A large, population-based study of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and valvular heart disease (VHD) found that use of apixaban was associated with a lower rate of ischemic stroke or systemic embolism and a lower rate of intracranial or gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding compared with rivaroxaban. The authors say clinicians should consider these findings when selecting anticoagulants in this patient population. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. VHD is common among patients with AF. The presence of VHD increases the risk for death, major adverse cardiovascular events, and major bleeding. Despite the common use of apixaban and rivaroxaban...

The commander of Russian forces in Ukraine says the situation in the southern city of Kherson is "difficult" and residents are to be evacuated. General Sergei Surovikin said Ukrainian troops using Himars rockets were hitting the city's infrastructure and housing. He spoke on Russian state TV. "The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population" of Kherson, he said. His rare admission of big problems was echoed by a top local official. Russian-installed regional official Kirill Stremousov warned Kherson residents that "in the very near future" Ukrainian troops would launch an assault on the city. "Please...

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday walked back remarks questioning Pakistan’s ability to keep its nuclear weapons safe by leftist President Joe Biden, who went as far as to call the South Asian nation, a nominal ally of America’s, “one of the most dangerous nations in the world.” Biden made the offending comments at a Democrat Party event at a private home in California last week. Offering disorganized remarks commenting on nuclear weapons generally, Biden mentioned Pakistan amid boasting yet again that he has a close personal relationship with dictator Xi Jinping of China. “I’ve spent more time with Xi...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in 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)Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

A much-touted EU fund meant to help countries replace weapons shipped to Ukraine is increasingly unable to cover an influx of reimbursement requests — and it hasn’t even sent out its first payment. Days after Russia’s war began, the EU set up a €‎500 million pot, encouraging countries to arm Kyiv and ask the EU to foot the bill. After looking at the receipts it received, Brussels determined it could cover about 85 percent of the costs, according to estimates shared by three diplomats. Then the EU authorized an even bigger pot — eventually totaling €1.5 billion. That’s when the...

Ken Burns’ The US and the Holocaust underplayed Peter Bergson’s role in the creation of the War Refuge Board, which is said to have saved 200,000 European Jews. Burns’ documentary, whether for ideological reasons or willful ignorance treated Bergson’s role as an afterthought. On the other hand, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Bergson’s nemesis received positive attention in Burns’ documentary. Yet, it was Stephen Wise who told the antisemitic State Department to hold off on distributing Gerhard Riegner’s report of the German Nazis systematic murder of Jews in Europe until he could verify it! It was pretty clear then, in 1943, that...

The harmless garter snake turned up on United Airlines Flight 2038 from Tampa, FL shortly after landing Monday afternoon at Newark Liberty International Airport. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the serpent was found slithering about in business class. Crew members were quickly notified after passengers began shrieking and pulling up their feet as the snake moved throughout the cabin. It is unclear on how the snake got aboard the plane, but the snake was released back into the wild after it's two hour flight.

Two of the biggest refiners in India have stopped looking for spot Russian crude oil supply set to arrive after December 5, the day on which the EU embargo on Russian oil shipments enters into force, sources familiar with the Indian firms’ procurement plans told Bloomberg on Tuesday. The two refiners are Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), according to the sources. India, the world’s third-largest crude oil importer, has been importing large volumes of Russian oil after the Russian invasion of Ukraine due to the cheap supply with hefty discounts on the Russian grades compared to...

Ukrainian Telegram Channel legitimate #Rumors Our source reports that the damage in the energy system of Ukraine is already 40%. Colleagues correctly write that the unified energy system is facing the risk of complete collapse. If the Russians continue to hit non-stop, then in a week there will be nothing left. Add to this the shortage of spare parts and components, and you will understand that Ukraine will soon be in a “complete blackout”. That's when the hardest times begin. This also applies to western Ukraine, which hoped that they would carry over and all the hardships, as usual, would...

The Russiagate special prosecutor has taken on a tough case: indicting Igor Danchenko, the principal sub-source for the discredited “Steele dossier,” which was penned by former British spy Christopher Steele and commissioned by the Hillary Clinton campaign to smear her GOP rival, Donald Trump, as a Kremlin mole. The peddling of a false narrative of Trump collusion with Russia was a product of the Clinton campaign and the FBI. Voluminous reports by the Justice Department’s inspector general have demonstrated that the bureau’s hierarchy was seized by anti-Trump animus. The FBI knowingly allowed itself to be fed partisan opposition research that...

Igor Danchenko is on trial, but so is the FBI. That is the theme of Russiagate special counsel John Durham’s prosecution of Danchenko, heading into its third day of trial in Alexandria, Va., federal court. Danchenko is charged with five counts of lying to the FBI about two of his sources for what became the infamous “Steele dossier” — a compilation of faux intelligence reports, mainly authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, that portrayed the GOP’s then-presidential candidate, Donald Trump, as a clandestine agent of Russia. Danchenko was Steele’s principal source. In essence, Durham accuses him of (a) concealing...

Reports on Monday had said the school's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories had created a new, deadlier version of the virus There's some friction between the federal government and Boston University researchers after the publication of a new COVID-19 study. BU said reports by some publications saying they had created a new "deadly" COVID strain are misleading and untrue. “First, this research is not gain-of-function research, meaning it did not amplify the Washington state SARS-COV-2 virus strain (original virus from 2020) or make it more dangerous,” BU said in a statement, calling online reports Monday "false and inaccurate." "In fact,...