Free Republic

Dave Matthews says lawmakers have been able to convince the nation that the public is “powerless” against gun violence and the “vulnerability of innocent people in this country is a sacrifice we have to make if we want to be truly American.” “It’s so mind-bogglingly cruel. It’s insanity,” the Dave Matthews Band frontman said in an interview with USA Today, published Friday. “I have no idea how people can stand up and say it’s ‘not guns’ and ‘it’s not the [National Rifle Association],’ it’s just mental health. And then do nothing to address the fact that from the ‘80s we’ve...

MOSCOW (AP) — In response to a new round of U.S. sanctions, Russia announced Friday that it was banning 500 Americans from entering the country, including former President Barack Obama and comedian Stephen Colbert. ... The ban includes 45 members of the U.S. House, Sens. J.D. Vance, Katie Britt and Eric Schmitt, and former ambassadors to Russia John Tefft and Jon Huntsman.

The family of a US tourist who died in Mexico last year under suspicious cricumstances are demanding President Biden and the State Department intervene in the death investigation. Shanquella Robinson died while vacationing with friends in San Jose del Cabo in Mexico in October 2022. Shortly afterward videos emerged of her being viciously beaten by other members of her party. However, the FBI have declined to bring any charges in the case. “We were hopeful that once the FBI got engaged, that they would respect this American citizen, this young black woman who, based on the video, did absolutely nothing...

In 2019, two-thirds of American fourth-graders scored below "proficient" in reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, scores declined again, reaching a 30-year low. However, despite a widespread national literacy problem among American schoolchildren, several states have managed to stave off the dramatic declines in test scores that plagued other states. Since 2013, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have all passed legislation mandating that teachers be trained in the "science of reading"—methods that typically center around phonics, an approach in which children are taught to read words by decoding the sounds that different letters...

Biden in Hiroshima, Japan on 5/19/23.

Women are at least twice as likely as men to be injured in Army basic training, according to data collected over six years by the service. Most of those injuries were musculoskeletal -- meaning they affect the bones, muscles, joints and tendons of female recruits. Military.com obtained the injury data as the Army is looking for ways to boost recovery for men and women moving through boot camp. During 2022, nearly 30% of female recruits were injured on average each month during Army basic training. The average was 23% per month between 2017 and 2022, the data shows. During those...

Democrats have been left scrambling to avoid a potential embarrassment for President Joe Biden in New Hampshire in 2024 after the Democratic National Committee approved a calendar that gave the state's slot to South Carolina. The move puts New Hampshire in a shared second slot on the primary calendar with Nevada, but it could actually keep Biden's name off the ballot. New Hampshire has a state law that requires it to have its primary a week before the rest of the country. With a Republican-led state legislature and governor, changing the state law to appease Democrats is not likely. “We...

I used the link above but I mostly want to see if others are slow at work. We sell processing equipment to the food, pharma and plastic industries. We're dead---slower than 2016 and it's getting worse. Our shop is going to 4 day work weeks with no overtime allowed and most likely we will have layoffs in the office. I have been here for 35 years and have never seen it this slow. Heck, this company started during the great depression---if this keeps up it will be closed in a matter of 6 months. Our competitors and customers are saying...

A female cyclist who gave up her dream of competing at the Olympics after losing to a biological male has said the experience 'hurt on a million different levels'. Hannah Arensman, 24, quit cyclocross after also receiving abuse from a left-wing, Antifa gun club which protested at her final race after claiming 'there's a massive TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] problem in cycling'. Arensman is a 35-time winner on the national cyclocross circuit and previously opened up in heartbreaking detail about her decision to leave the sport, saying the inclusion of trans competitors meant she would 'lose no matter how hard...

Debt ceiling talks are now on 'pause,' according to House Republicans, after all sides expressed hope earlier this week that there could be a deal on the horizon. Rep. Garrett Graves followed White House negotiators out of a meeting in the speaker's office and told reporters they had pressed pause on negotiations. He called talks 'not productive' and said the Biden administration was making 'unreasonable' requests.

FBI whistleblower Steve Friend tweeted the poster for the Happiness Seminar last Tuesday. Just the News reported on Monday that Friend was “an FBI special agent who left the bureau after blowing the whistle on alleged civil liberty violations during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation.” He “tweeted that the seminar will have three parts that feature ‘the effects of smiling,’ ‘the effects of speaking good words,’ and ‘the effects of doing good deeds.’” Good deeds — you know, like framing the president of the United States if he is a political undesirable. Friend added, “The @FBI is woke and...

The reaction of a fallen police officer’s mother to President Biden, who had just awarded her the nation’s highest honor for bravery by a public safety officer, is going viral. President Biden honored nine first responders with the Medal of Valor at the White House Wednesday, including two New York Police Department officers who were ambushed and killed after responding to a 911 call and the rookie cop who killed the gunman. NYPD officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera were shot in Jan. 2022, while responding to a call about a family dispute in Harlem. Gabina Mora accepted the medal...

Joe Biden is in Japan now for the G7 meeting, right in the middle of challenging debt negotiation meetings with the Republicans. That’s all on him because he delayed meeting with Republicans for so long. He had planned on being abroad longer, after the G7 but he’s amended his plans and will be coming back to try to make a deal after he got shamed into it by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). But now Biden is in Japan doing what he generally does when he’s overseas — embarrassing the heck out of us. Biden was meeting with other leaders...

The Capitol Police couldn’t even defend their own building, nor could they defend Pelosi’s San Francisco home from an illegal alien hammer man, but somehow, they have now established national offices to monitor U.S. citizens outside their jurisdiction? Now they want more money and authority. Are you kidding me? This week, House Republicans crafted the annual appropriations bill funding the legislative branch of government, typically the smallest and least controversial of the 12 annual spending bills. However, in that bill they plan to provide $780.9 million to the U.S. Capitol police, which is $46.3 million more than enacted fiscal year...

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that a former NFL player threatened him with execution on Twitter. “Who is this guy threatening to execute me? And how does he have so many followers?” Swalwell asked on Twitter, posting a direct message from an account that appears to belong to former San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars fullback Bruce Miller. The message read, “Almost time!!! Would you rather Guantanamo or just execution,” followed by several laughing emojis and ending with “f—– traitor.” Swalwell said in an update Thursday that the 49ers had reached out to him about the “threat from a...

In a significant development that reflects the growing influence of the BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have commenced discussions on a potential expansion plans to include new member countries. The move comes as several nations express a keen interest in joining the influential bloc, which has emerged as a key player in global economic and political affairs. The BRICS nations, known for their collective efforts to promote cooperation and development, have been actively working towards expanding their membership. The group’s annual summit, held virtually this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, witnessed detailed deliberations on...

Sleep deprivation, especially common during postmenopause, has been linked with a number of health problems, including hyperuricemia (elevated serum uric acid), which can often lead to gout and other life-threatening conditions such as heart disease. A new study suggests that weekend catch-up sleep may minimize the risk of hyperuricemia in postmenopausal women. Hyperuricemia is most often associated with gout, an increasingly common form of arthritis characterized by severe pain, redness, and tenderness in joints. Pain and inflammation occur when too much uric acid crystallizes and deposits in the joints. In addition, hyperuricemia is associated with metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, and...

Before the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. led the world in economic growth. It accounted for over 1/3 of total global consumption growth. In mid-2007, U.S. household wealth hit a peak of $61.4 trillion. The average home value appreciated 124% between 1997-2006. Overinflated confidence, consumption, and value went largely unchecked. Growth became the status quo. Though few regulators and investors noticed as it was happening, those who study history look back and see the early 2000s as a classic economic bubble, made worse by shoddy loans and deregulated banking.

Ben Crump was branded a “race hustler” and was heavily criticized by social media users after he posted a video on Twitter, where he claimed that a white woman attempted to “steal” a bike from a Black guy by feigning tears. Twitter has since added a Community Note for Crump’s post, which says, “Since the filming of this video, receipts have been made available to prove that the woman in question was in fact the person who paid to unlock and use the bike.” Twitter also linked the URL of a Yahoo News article regarding the incident.

Who is going to trust the Department of Justice now? In the wake of Special Counsel John Durham’s long-awaited report, Americans now know there was widespread political collusion and deliberate deception from the very top of the Obama administration, the Clinton campaign, the corporate media and the Department of Justice (DOJ), all in favor of the Democrats. Not only did they abuse their power and lie to the public, they seem to be proud of it. With these facts now added to the long list of formerly crazy conspiracy theories come true, former president Donald Trump is essentially inoculated from...