Free Republic

Composer Angelo Badalamenti, best known for the soundtrack from "Twin Peaks," died Sunday at age 85. JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: TV and film composer Angelo Badalamenti has died. He was at his home in New Jersey surrounded by family. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Badalamenti started composing on the piano when he was 10 and went on to study at the Manhattan School of Music. He wrote songs for Nina Simone and scored crime movies. SUMMERS: And in 1985, he was introduced to the esteemed film maker David Lynch. Badalamenti went on to score five of Lynch's films, but he was perhaps best...

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced changes to the U.S. naturalization test on Wednesday, reducing the difficulty of the English-speaking section and editing the civics section to make the test easier for citizenship applicants.

Stop trying to take Ron DeSantis away from Florida. Just stop it. I understand the rationale, but it’s wrong. It may be quite reasonable to be jealous of Florida for its governor—the only governor in the nation to win my coveted “competent” rating on every major issue. But before we encourage DeSantis and Donald Trump to have a falling out that splits the party (or, rather, before we let the RINO simps do it at the behest of Democrats and lots of Chinese money), let’s review a few salient points. First, governors really matter now. The worse Washington gets—and it...

The social media coordination between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI isn’t limited to Twitter, former Congressman and current CEO of President Trump’s Truth Social, Devin Nunes, alleged in an interview that aired on Newsmakers by NTD and The Epoch Times on Dec. 14. The Twitter Files, a collection of internal emails and communications made public by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, confirmed what many Conservatives have alleged for years. Namely, Twitter was shadow-banning accounts that didn’t fit a specific ideology and suspending accounts that bucked the chosen political narrative, Nunes claimed. But, the most concerning revelation in...

Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi COMING at 4 est: TWITTER: THE FBI SUBSIDIARY

PORTLAND, Ore. — Some Portland leaders and parents are calling for the return of school resource officers to Portland Public Schools, while some activists say bringing them back wouldn't help reduce the violence. “It’s worrisome and concerning," said Portland Public Schools parent Eric Happel when talking about the recent violence near Portland high schools. He has a child who's an 11th grade student at Lincoln High School in Portland. Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, a former school resource officer himself, says he welcomes the move if Portland Public Schools agrees. But Executive Director of Don't Shoot Portland Teressa Raiford says...

He was only two days old when he was abandoned by his herd. Charlie the baby hippo was premature, weak, stressed and traumatised when he was rescued by workers from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in KwaZulu-Natal. But what a difference a few years and some TLC can make – Charlie (6) is healthy as a horse and will soon be released into the wild. But boy, did he have plenty obstacles standing in his way. For the first few years of his life, Charlie believed he was a rhinoceros because he was raised with rhinos in a rhino orphanage. But to...

A judge in Maricopa County has ordered that Kari Lake’s petition to inspect ballots in the county from the 2022 mid-term election be granted. The Lake campaign will have to select a designate a ballot inspector and provide the court with contact information for them by Friday at 12pm. The inspection would begin on December 20, 2022 at 8am.

He vows to ban the federal government from censoring “lawful speech of American citizens.”Bravo.In a speech this past week, former President Donald Trump vowed that if reelected he will make a point of ending the federal government’s censorship of Americans’ free speech.Within hours of my inauguration, I will sign an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business, or person, to censor, limit, categorize, or impede the lawful speech of American citizens….I will begin the process of identifying and firing every federal bureaucrat who has engaged in domestic censorship — directly or indirectly —...

Here is the spread between Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate and their 30-year JUMBO mortgage. Notice that between 2007 and early 2020, the median “jumbo spread” was 49 basis points. But after Covid and The Fed’s counterattack (by printing M2 Money), the median Jumbo spread from 4/1/2020 to today is only 1 basis point. In the following chart, you can see the jumbo mortgage rate (yellow) against the conforming mortgage rate (white) and there is almost always a spread between the two UNTIL 2020 where we saw M2 Money growth (green line) spike and The Fed increased their purchases of Agency...

NATIONAL MAPLE SYRUP DAY Get the flapjacks ready for National Maple Syrup Day. December 17th calls for orders of pancakes, french toast, or biscuits topped off with butter and delicious maple syrup. #MapleSyrupDay It is usually from the xylem sap of sugar maple, red maple, or black maple trees that maple syrup is made from although it is not limited to those maple species. These trees, in cold climates, store starch in their trunks and in their roots. In the spring, the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap. The maple trees are then tapped by...

President Biden claimed Friday that his uncle Frank Biden won the Purple Heart for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II — but there’s no evidence of the award and key details of the story are chronologically impossible. The 80-year-old commander-in-chief has a habit of sharing false or embellished personal anecdotes to build a connection with his audiences and told his latest apparent tall tale during largely unscripted remarks. “My dad, when I got elected vice president [in 2008], he said, ‘Joey, Uncle Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge.’ He was not feeling...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A transgender woman in New Hampshire filed a discrimination complaint Friday against the manufacturing company where she works as a machinist, challenging its exclusion of gender-transition health coverage. The complaint against Barrington-based Turbocam, which makes parts for the HVAC, automotive, aviation and space exploration industries, asks the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission to investigate and cross-file it with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Bernier is represented by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, a Boston-based advocacy group. The complaint alleges that Turbocam and Health Plans Inc., which administers Turbocam’s self-funded health coverage plan, is violating employment...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports, rejecting arguments by four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld a lower court judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the policy. The panel said the four cisgender athletes lacked standing to sue — in part because their claims that they were deprived of wins, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities...

France have been hit with a virus that could see the team's starting centre-back pairing miss the World Cup final, sources have told ESPN. According to sources, Raphael Varane has small symptoms of the virus and fellow defender Ibrahima Konate has not left his room after feeling unwell. France coach Didier Deschamps said they were taking precautions to stop a virus spreading through the squad after Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot missed the semifinal win over Morocco due to sickness. "In Doha, temperatures have fallen a little bit, you have air conditioning which is on all the time," Deschamps said...

This morning I discovered something *extremely* alarming happening in the car market, specifically in auto lending. I'm now convinced that there is a massive wave of car repossessions coming in 2023. Here's what I discovered (and what no one knows): Background: Over the past 2 years, many people took out exorbitant loans on cars. Car values were inflated (and frankly, still are to some extent). But many people simply had no choice and bought an overpriced a car. Well... Car valuations are now plummeting. Some cars have declined in value as much as 30% y/y. And these same people that...

President Biden on Friday signed a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through next week as congressional negotiators haggle over the details of a longer-term spending deal. Biden signed the bill upon returning to the White House from Delaware, where he’d given remarks about legislation to help veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits. The Senate on Thursday night voted 71-19 to pass the continuing resolution (CR), sending it to Biden for approval after it passed the House the night before in a 224-201 vote. The CR freezes funding levels through Dec. 23 to buy time for...

An elite Russian military brigade suffered so many losses while fighting in Ukraine that it was essentially "wiped out" and is expected to take a long time to rebuild, according to a new report. When it was first sent into Ukraine, the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, stationed in northwestern Russia near its border with NATO-leaning Finland, had more experience, newer equipment, and better training than many other Russian units, The Washington Post reported on Friday. But despite these advantages, the 200th suffered greatly in the months of combat that would follow. Shortly after the invasion, units belonging to the...

The Santa Cruz Mountains will soon offer a slew of new trails for hiking and biking, the product of years of grassroots work to open thousands of acres of private lands to the public. The first new trails are at San Vicente Redwoods, a preserve near the community of Bonny Doon. The property was acquired as part of a campaign by conservation groups to safeguard what is one of the largest privately owned redwood forests in California. Formerly mined and logged by materials giant Cemex, the newly protected land is making its public premiere with about 8 miles of trails...

Corporate war machines lobbying for American dollars and human collateral — life really does imitate art. There’s a quote often attributed to Robin Williams which says, “Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers, then we know who owns them.” Over the years, creative minds have used the quip as inspiration for many a meme and cartoon: (tweet at link) But now, this joke is more than just a snarky idea floating around in the ether. This morning, Vox published a piece titled, “This DC party invite shows all the money to be made off the Ukraine war” — our...