Free Republic

Stick a fiscal fork in ’em: These student loan debtors are done.As they contend with a second legal setback to President Biden’s estimated $430 billion student debt cancellation plan, some exasperated borrowers told The Post they won’t ever pay another penny toward their massive tabs — regardless of how it might impact their future finances. Rather than having up to $20,000 forgiven as Biden vowed in August, the fed-up debtors remain among the more than 45 million borrowers who owe a total of $1.6 trillion in federal student loans. The average undergraduate borrower leaves college with nearly $25,000 in debt,...

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, announced on Saturday night that he would reinstate the account of former US President Donald Trump, a day after running a poll on his Twitter account, asking users whether he should do so. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” he wrote. Musk originally posted the poll on Friday night, and later added, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” When the 24-hour poll closed on Saturday night, 51.8% of respondents had voted in favor of reinstating Trump and 48.2% said they did...

The B-1B supersonic bomber. (Credit: US Military News) Two U.S. Air Force supersonic B-1B bombers flew with South Korean and Japanese warplanes in a joint exercise Saturday in a response to North Korea’s Thursday test of an intercontinental missile. That missile landed just 124 miles from Japan in the East Sea.South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff described the maneuvers in a statement:“South Korea and the US conducted a joint air drill today with the US Air Force’s B-1B strategic bomber redeployed on the Korean peninsula,” they said, adding that the drill saw the participation of some of the...

The three major summits of world leaders that took place across Asia in the past week have made one thing clear: Vladimir Putin is now sidelined on the world stage. Putin, whose attack on Ukraine over the past nine months has devastated the European country and roiled the global economy, declined to attend any of the diplomatic gatherings – and instead found himself subject to significant censure as international opposition to his war appeared to harden. A meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in Bangkok closed on Saturday with a declaration that references nations’ stances expressed in other...

Twitter may often be a cesspool of toxic digital waste, but it also serves as a kind of public record of historical events. Case in point: Donald Trump’s resurfaced tweets from January 6, 2021.Now that his account has been reinstated, the entire world can access the trove of Trump’s tweets — the good, the bad and the covfefe. Conservatives are flooding their tweet streams tonight with retweets of two messages Trump sent on January 6, and they paint a picture far different from what libs like AOC and lame ducks like Liz Cheney would have you believe.After nearly two long...

The leadership elections in the House and Senate were only the opening salvo in what promises to be a long, drawn-out struggle for the soul of the Republican Party, running at least through the 2024 presidential election. You might consider Donald Trump to have fired the first shot when he announced his intention to seek the GOP nomination for president. While most observers see Trump’s announcement and effort to win the nomination as an uphill battle, others, like MyPillow maker Mike Lindell, see Trump’s candidacy as a coronation. “After he announces today, I think [Florida governor] Ron DeSantis will end...

In a recent article, the Pakistan-based Urdu-language pro-Taliban daily Roznama Ummat examined the Qatari government's preparations for da'wa ("preaching," "invitation to Islam") at the FIFA World Cup beginning on November 20, 2022. Da'wa is an important part of Islam whereby Muslims are expected to invite non-Muslims to embrace the religion. The article, titled "FIFA World Cup And Da'wa Of The Religion," and written by Islamic religious scholar Zia Chitrali, explains various media activities and events planned to explain Islam to non-Muslim spectators and to try to persuade them to convert. As part of these events planned by Qatari officials, thousands...

Billionaire and new Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted a poll on Friday evening, asking if Twitter should finally reinstate former President Donald Trump. Musk added, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Latin for “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”Trump responded to the poll on his TruthSocial platform on Saturday. He messaged a screenshot of the Twitter poll showing that 52% of respondents wanted him back on Twitter with the comment, “Vote now with positivity, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!”Twitter originally banned Trump in January 2021, following the events of Jan. 6, claiming...

The White House recently announced that it was funding a five-year research plan for a controversial proposal to fight climate change by geoengineering — i.e., technologies and processes that can be used to artificially modify the Earth's climate.This research would be dedicated specifically to a form of geoengineering known as "solar radiation management," which involves spraying fine aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth. The hope is that, once the sunlight is reflected, less heat will be generated, and ergo temperatures will go down. Presto: actual anthropogenic climate change! A global SPF 100, as it were!The...

Republicans have secured a U.S. House majority, barely. Barely is better than not at all. But a slim margin will pose daunting challenges to Republicans, who will be led by Kevin McCarthy. The Californian will win the speaker’s gavel with the full backing of his conference. He’ll notch a win because the stakes are enormous. Even, finally, tough-nosed conservative Matt Gaetz knows this. McCarthy wins because he’ll cut a deal with Freedom Caucus members who backed Arizona’s Andy Biggs for speaker. Biggs won 31 votes to McCarthy’s 188. Biggs was trounced but really not, because those 31 votes loom large....

The official anniversary of the Yellow Vests protest is November 17, 2018 and there were observances on Thursday including this one in Paris at a replica of New York's Statue of Liberty... The protests began in response to the decision of the government of President Emmanuel Macron to raise gasoline taxes in France as a means of fighting "climate change"... The issue of the "Ocean Viking" migrants continued this week... On Friday the notion of electricity being cut in France starting in January was unveiled... And from Paris today live video from the Yellow Vests protest. A large crowd in...

Poor Jim Cramer is on record calling FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried the JP Morgan of this generation. Is there anything Jim gets right?

This stockpile of cruise and ballistic missiles was likely used to deliver massive air strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent months. “They apparently have a withhold for a notional NATO attack, which we would regard as absurd, but they regard it as a real possibility,” Cancian said.“So they’re holding back some part of their inventory for that.”The report further suggests that Russia has built up a stockpile of microchips and other technological components for domestic missile production before invading Ukraine on Feb. 24. In October, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin announced a set of measures to ramp up output of...

This is really a stunning report. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy used FTX funding to sway GOP primaries away from Trump supporters. The National File originally reported on this on Friday. Kevin McCarthy Used #FTX #SBF Stolen to Defeat Conservatives in 2022. Which Destroyed the so-called “Red Wave.” pic.twitter.com/TDwJpKbRd4 Of course, it is widely know that the now bankrupt FTX US funded millions into Democrat campaigns through Ukraine. But at least one FTX player funded hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kevin McCarthy to take out MAGA lawmakers. Most of the rest of the money, $700,000, came from Ryan Salame,...

With this year's Thanksgiving the third since the onset of the pandemic, there are now many tools to help manage COVID-19 risk, including safe and widely available vaccines. But this coronavirus still presents a danger, especially to older people and those with chronic medical conditions. There are also other viruses circulating across the United States, including influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) that are causing some pediatric hospitals to be overwhelmed. What are steps people can take to protect themselves and their loved ones against COVID-19 during Thanksgiving dinners and other gatherings over the coming holidays? Is it still important...

France and Germany on Friday hailed the conclusion of a deal to build a new European fighter jet after months of disagreements between two companies involved -- Airbus and Dassault Aviation. Launched by France and Germany in 2017 and since joined by Spain, the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) aims to have a next-generation jet in service by 2040, along with integrated drone fleets. But progress on the new delta-wing stealth aircraft has been plagued by fighting over the sharing of the industrial work as well as intellectual property for the cutting-edge technologies. "After intense negotiations, a deal between manufacturers...

On November 19, 1720, Edward Hunt was hanged in Philadelphia. He was the only Pennsylvanian executed for treason prior to the American Revolution — that treason being not the betrayal of the state (in the sense we might think of it today), but counterfeiting. In the bitterness of his scaffold speech, which disdains the customary acknowledge-my-guilt, pray-for-my-soul form of the genre to complain about his case, Hunt made plain that he was not reconciled to the justice men had rendered him. The American Weekly Mercury of Thursday, November 24 published “this extraordinary Piece” only with a preface complaining that “it...

Japan, Britain and Italy are expected to reach a formal agreement in December to develop a next-generation fighter jet that will be used by the Air Self-Defense Force, Japanese government sources said. Japan plans to deploy the new fighters by around 2035, when the ASDF’s current F-2s will start to retire. The airframe of the new fighters will be mainly developed by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) and BAE Systems Plc, a major British defense contractor. Italian aviation and defense company Leonardo SpA will join in this part of the project, the sources said. Japan’s IHI Corp., Britain’s Rolls-Royce...

Tiger Woods & Elin Nordegren - $750 Million Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt - $400 Million Kevin Costner & Cindy Silva - $80 Million Alec & Jocelyn Wildenstein - $2.5 Billion Jocelyn managed to get $2.5 billion out of her ex-husband Alec Wildenstein, French businessman and billionaire. Michael & Diandra Douglas - $45 Million Robert & Sheila Johnson - $400 million After 33 years of marriage to his partner, Sheila Johnson, co-founder of BET Robert Johnson separated in 2002. Dr. Phil McGraw & Debbie Higgins - Approx. $1 Million Andre Agassi & Brooke Shields - $130 Million Bernie & Slavica...

Days after saying he is “strongly recommending” masks indoors, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health was seen at an indoor party without one. Dr. Kieran Moore was attending a party for those on local magazine Toronto Life’s “50 most influential” in 2022 list, where he ranked 12th for “keeping COVID under control.” A photo circulating online shows Moore standing among a group of people at the party, all of whom are not wearing masks. Moore made the recommendation for masking indoors in a Nov. 14 press conference, warning about the combined threats of COVID-19, seasonal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and...