Free Republic

As federal budget projections unveil a distressing trend, $1 trillion+ US budget deficits are solidifying their status as the new normal, stretching through 2033 and beyond. The grim reality suggests that witnessing a year with a deficit below $1 trillion may be an elusive prospect. In a disconcerting revelation, the US Treasury anticipates borrowing an additional $816 billion in Q1 2024 alone, with a significant portion allocated to deficit spending. The trajectory of deficit spending, as predicted by the Council on Foreign Relations, has propelled the US to allocate more funds to gross interest payments than to defense, painting a...

A controversial Canadian corporate media journalist has died at just 33 years old, according to reports. Ian Vandaelle has died after being hospitalized and “declared neurologically dead,” his family revealed. Vandaelle was a business journalist who worked as a reporter and editor at the Financial Post. He was also previously a producer at BNN Bloomberg for over a decade. However, he was known to many on social media for his pro-Covid vaccine posts on Twitter/X. Vandaelle advocated for vaccine passports and mandates and called for the firing of anyone who refused the injections. He also suggested that unvaccinated people should...

Microsoft—one of the world’s most successful and widely-used tech companies—is risking its reputation with its news aggregator, MSN (short for Microsoft Network), in a way that could send it into a woke descent similar to corporations like Bud Light, Disney, and Target. While news aggregators are supposed to focus on journalism rather than ideological activism, MSN seems to have assembled a news operation comprised of editors and AI software that practices the opposite of journalism, which is preventing readers from accessing the vast array of political, social, and cultural views embedded within American culture. Although many media outlets have experienced...

At 6:30 p.m. on Thursday December 16, 1773, a group of between 100 and 150 Americans raided three East India Company merchantmen moored in Boston and threw 92,000 lb of tea (worth $1.7 million in today’s terms) into the harbor. A central part of the American founding story, the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party is being commemorated this month as a key moment when patriotic Americans fought back against the greedy British and their oppressive taxation policies that forced up prices on commodities such as tea, which in turn led to the American Revolution. But the truth is...

Jack Smith, the special counsel who has brought two cases against former President Donald Trump, made a bold move this week designed to undercut one of Trump’s chief defenses against accusations of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.Smith asked the Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s attempts to have the election subversion charges dismissed on a sweeping claim of executive immunity before a lower appeals court even has the chance to consider the issue.Smith also asked the justices to make their decision quickly.“The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request,” he told the Supreme Court in a petition...

CAMBRIDGE, MA — As controversy continued to swirl at Harvard University after the school's board expressed unanimous support for its embattled leader, President Claudine Gay responded to the people calling for her removal by giving a rousing, original speech she wrote called "I Have A Dream." "This is something I just wrote last night to inspire others," Gay said. "It is my hope that this speech, which I wrote entirely myself, will help other people stand up under unjust oppression, just as I have over the last week." Gay then took a piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it,...

Treasurer Oaks opposes SEC proposal to allow for the creation of a new type of company designed to lock up private and public lands Proposal could cause significant harm to rural economies by removing land from productive use SALT LAKE CITY – December 11, 2023 – Utah Treasurer Marlo M. Oaks opposes a proposal under consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would allow for the creation and listing of a new type of company called a Natural Asset Company (NAC) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The proposal poses a significant risk to rural economies by...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has reached a tentative agreement with the parent company of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals to move those teams from the District of Columbia to what he called a new “visionary sports and entertainment venue” in northern Virginia. The proposal, which would need the state legislature’s approval, calls for the creation of a $2 billion sports and entertainment district south of Washington in Alexandria, just miles from the existing arena, Youngkin said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of a news conference planned at the site. It...

@ZelenskyyUa I met with leaders of US defense companies and expressed my gratitude to every American worker who manufactures weapons that help us safeguard our people and defend our land. I appreciated all American companies that attended last week's US-Ukraine defense industry conference. I also proposed establishing a European defense hub in Ukraine. We are prepared to make all essential decisions, cut red tape, and allocate orders. We are ready to produce more ammunition and military vehicles, but we require support. It is important to develop joint production of artillery ammo, air defense systems, and artillery and missile systems. Together,...

The aunt of murdered Texas high school cheerleader Lizbeth Medina said the family had never seen or heard of the undocumented immigrant who is accused of stabbing the teen — and are also searching for answers about why he may have committed the slaying. Rafael Romero, a 23-year-old living in Texas on an expired visa, had no previous encounters with the family before the deadly stabbing, the victim’s aunt Ana Medina told The Post Tuesday. On Dec. 5, Lizbeth Medina, a 16-year-old student at Edna High School, was found dead in the bathtub at her family’s apartment by her mother,...

San Francisco was cleaned up for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit for the APEC Summit in November Less than a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, San Francisco is reverting to a den of homelessness and drugs, according to locals. "It's recognizable. San Francisco, same as before. Anyone they pushed out of important zones has just slowly crept right back in," Crossfit Golden Gate Gym owner Danielle Rabkin said on "Varney & Co" Tuesday. In November, President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jingping met during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) in...

How the horrifying atrocities in Israel against Jewish women and children on October 7th could result in an explosion of hatred towards Jews in America makes no sense. It defies all logic, and the initial epicenter of that hate was on “safe space” college campuses. But, then, maybe it’s understandable if you consider the role of “socialist-loving ‘intellectuals’” or, anti-American academics. When assessing the hate that I encountered returning from combat in Vietnam in 1969, that group came out on top as the leading offender. Today, socialist-loving “intellectuals” are the root cause of the hatred against the Jewish people. They’ve...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemActs 22The Plot to Kill Paul 12 The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 More than forty men were involved in this plot. 14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. 15 Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We...

After suffering devastating wildfires in the area of Lahaina, a historic town in Maui, it has officially reopened to residents and business owners. The move announced on Monday, comes three months after the deadly wildfires torched the island and killed over 100 people.Areas that were reopened included the Banyan Tree Park, with the 150-year-old banyan tree burned in the August wildfires that takes up over an acre of land, according to the Associated Press.

The Biden administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week’s COP28 conference in Dubai that it says will help save the planet from climate change. The policies aren’t likely to change the planet’s temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the 21st-century American industrial economy as we know it. First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States. This comes on the heels of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants...

For at least half a century the Left has been luring this nation into a deadly dance. Like the sirens of Greek myth, their music hits all the right notes: true equality, fairness, justice for all, health, and peace, etc. Because the music is so beautiful, and the steps to the dance so familiar, again and again we’ve accepted their invitation and blindly followed their lead. This simple political dance can be done to many types of “music,” for it has only three steps. We have seen its familiar choreography in efforts against racism and crime, in steps to preserve...

Governments have agreed for the first time ever to "transition away" from fossil fuels to avert the worst effects of climate change, in an "historic" agreement from the COP28 climate summit. The UN's climate body, UNFCCC, published the draft text of the deal early on Wednesday morning after negotiations had run well into the small hours in Dubai. Host nation the United Arab Emirates then quickly rushed it through a closing plenary session, facing no objections. "Let us finish what we have started," said COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, as the room erupted in applause. "We have language on fossil fuels...

Houthi rebels using a drone hit a Norwegian tanker ship for the second time in the Red Sea on Monday, December 11. The ship had first been hit on Sunday by a Houthi cruise missile, most likely a Quds-1, a copy of the Iranian Soumar cruise missile or the Russian Kh-55. The first attack was reported by the UK Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) office which reported the attack took place at 2100 UTC (or midnight local time) in the vicinity of the Bab El Mandeb strait, about 15 nautical miles west of port Mocha, Yemen. The French FREMM frigate Languedoc...

Members of the organization "Last Generation" attack Christmas trees with paint in Berlin, Oldenburg, Kiel, Leipzig, Rostock, Nuremberg, and Munich The groups twitter is full of climate change gibberish

Abigail Martinez, a mother who lost her daughter to suicide, is seeking justice and protection for families facing similar situations. First Liberty Institute has submitted a brief to the Supreme Court on her behalf, urging the court to uphold parental rights in a case involving the removal of a child from Christian parents due to their religious beliefs about sexuality. Abigail’s daughter, Yaeli, struggled with depression and sexuality, and was ultimately taken from her home and given gender-transition treatments without parental consent. (Trending: Top Democrat Loses In Historic Landslide) “My child was a number in the system. I don’t want...