Free Republic

Mexico is our next-door neighbor but it seems many Americans are not well-informed about it. Wrong and outdated impressions of Mexico affect our policymakers as well. This is particularly true regarding border and immigration policy. Americans think of Mexico as a poor country. And it is, compared to the United States. But Mexico is wealthier and has a higher standard of living than most countries in Latin America and Africa. There are, of course, many poor Mexicans. But doesn’t Mexico itself, with all its wealth, have a responsibility to help its own poor people? In the U.S., any meddling perpetrated...

Using antidepressants during pregnancy or while breastfeeding can damage a baby’s brain and increase their risk of suffering mental health problems in the future, a study found. Prozac, also known as fluoxetine, increases levels of mood-boosting serotonin in the brain - but scientists discovered this can affect a child’s developing prefrontal cortex. They also found the drug can pass into the breast milk of new mothers who take it and end up being fed to newborns. Research suggest that between 300,000 and 400,000 kids are being exposed to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) drugs each year in the US during...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Zen warns of pro-LGBT Synod ‘agenda,’ ‘great confusion’ caused by Fiducia SupplicansThe ‘vision’ of the Synod on Synodality, Cardinal Zen said, ‘if legitimized, can change everything, the doctrine of faith and the discipline of moral life.’ Joseph Cardinal Zen has released a robust critique of the Synod on Synodality and its ecclesial “vision,” stating that it “offends our intelligence” to claim that there is “no agenda” behind the synod and warning it could “change everything.”“We cannot help but be stunned, because we are told that it is still unclear what synodality is,” Zen wrote, referring to the...

A Marion County, Tenn. grand jury indicted Pastor David C. Berry this month for stealing more than $27,000 from a man with disabilities. He was charged following a joint investigation and report from The Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Berry is currently the pastor of the Praise & Worship Family Outreach Center (PWFOC). He is also a tax preparer and the owner of The Tax Service in Jasper, Tenn. The investigation into Berry’s financial dealings delves back to 2011 when he became the representative payee for the man with disabilities. The report...

CNN legal analyst Michael Moore on Friday cast doubt on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ Thursday testimony in which she claimed she always reimbursed her romantic partner with cash. Willis testified during a hearing on whether she should be disqualified from her election interference case against former President Donald Trump for improperly benefiting financially from appointing special prosecutor Nathan Wade to the case. They both asserted Willis reimbursed Wade with cash for their vacations and outings, so there was no record of it, which Moore described as “convenient” on “CNN This Morning.” Moore criticized both the defense lawyers and...

NEW YORK (AP) — As some of the world’s biggest economies stumble into recession, the United States keeps chugging along. Both Japan and the United Kingdom said Thursday their economies likely weakened during the final three months of 2023. For each, it would be the second straight quarter that’s happened, which fits one lay definition for a recession. Yet in the United States, the economy motored ahead in last year’s fourth quarter for a sixth straight quarter of growth. It’s blown past many predictions coming into last year that a recession seemed inevitable because of high interest rates meant to...

Google will allow businesses to install an auto-updating version of the Chrome operating system to Windows devices, potentially preventing millions of PCs from hitting landfills after Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab ends support for Windows 10 next year, parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab said on Wednesday. The company said ChromeOS Flex will continue receiving regular security updates and features like data encryption, allowing users to keep using their Windows 10 systems. Microsoft has said that its Windows 10 will reach the end of support on Oct. 14 2025, and will no longer provide regular security updates, bug fixes,...

House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) announced he will not be seeking a fourth term in Congress. This decision follows his prominent role in leading the impeachment efforts against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Green released a powerful retirement statement criticizing the Washington elites and explaining his decision to retire from Congress. “At the start of the 118th Congress, I promised my constituents to pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable. Today, with the House having passed H.R. 2 and Secretary Mayorkas impeached, it is time for me to return home....

Last fall’s contentious United Auto Workers’ strike changed Ford’s relationship with the union to the point where it will “think carefully” about where it builds future vehicles, Ford’s top executive said Thursday. CEO Jim Farley told the Wolfe Research Global Auto Conference in New York that the company always took pride in its relationship with the UAW, having avoided strikes since the 1970s. But last year, Ford’s highly profitable factory in Louisville, Kentucky, was the first truck plant that the UAW shut down with a strike. Farley said as the company looks at the transition from internal combustion to electric...

Archaeologists from the University of Wyoming (UW) have uncovered a megalithic plaza in the Cajamarca Basin of northern Peru.According to the researchers, the plaza dates from around 4,750 years ago and is one of the earliest examples of a circular plaza construction in the Andean South America.The discovery was made at the Callacpuma archaeological site, consisting of two concentric walls of large, vertically placed megalithic stones held upright without the use of mortar.The form and size of the construction, alongside the absence of domestic items to indicate habitation, suggests that the monument was likely ceremonial in purpose.A study of the...

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has helped reveal an 11-billion-year-old discovery more massive than the Milky Way, which astronomers say should not exist. The unprecedented discovery, which could upend our current understanding about the formation of galaxies, and also require scientists to rethink the mysterious nature of dark matter, involves an extremely old—and massive—galaxy that existed in the early universe which was home to an ancient population of stars. What makes the discovery unique and perplexing to astronomers is that the stars observed in this primordial galaxy should not have been able to form according to current models, because there...

The other shoe. How many times have I said it here? democrats are good at several things- lying, cheating, derision, ridicule and haste. What they are not good at is honesty or regret. And once again, the other show drops and kicks them in the butt. Now they may find themselves witnesses in a Biden impeachment. When Special Counsel Robert's Hur's report was released he was the subject of unrelenting invective from democrats. Special counsel overstepped mandate with ‘gratuitous’ Biden slams, say ex-DOJ DemsDemocrats slam ‘cheap trash’ about Biden’s memory as Republicans say he’s a ‘security risk’Jean-Pierre slams Hur, says...

Tucker Carlson has turned on Vladimir Putin in the wake of the shocking death of Alexei Navalny, just days after releasing a softball interview with the Russian president and a series of 'tourism board style' videos about the country's clean train stations and cheap groceries. In an exclusive statement to DailyMail.com, Carlson said: 'It's horrifying what happened to Navalny. 'The whole thing is barbaric and awful. No decent person would defend it.' It remains unclear whether the former Fox News host is still in Moscow.

October/November 2023, Volume 16, Issue 10. Authors: Devorah Margolin, Matthew Levitt. Abstract: When Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force of arms in 2007, it faced an ideological crisis. It could focus on governing Gaza and addressing the needs of the Palestinian people, or it could use the Gaza Strip as a springboard from which to attack Israel. Even then, Hamas understood these two goals were mutually exclusive. And while some anticipated Hamas would moderate, or at least be co-opted by the demands of governing, it did not. Instead, Hamas invested in efforts to radicalize society and build the...

With no regard to the danger, this White House has thrown open the gates to a stampede of evildoers. Almost 300 people from our Terror Watch List have already been caught. But have they been kept? Just this week, a Pakistani national that Border Patrol captured in November was found wandering around Los Angeles after his January release, stunning immigration officials. “Imagine how many cases like this one get through without us knowing,” one Homeland Security official told the Daily Caller anonymously. In most cases, it takes “more than three months for an agency to determine if someone is/was a...

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny appeared healthy and in good spirits during a court appearance just one day before his sudden death in prison, according to a video. In footage by Russian news outlet SOTA and shared by Reuters, Navalny is seen cracking jokes with a judge in what is believed to be his last court hearing before his death. -snip- He began his career as an anti-corruption blogger before carving his own path as an independent politician who was outspoken against Putin and organized protests against the Kremlin. In August 2020, Navalny collapsed on a flight from Siberia. Medical...

Tax refunds so far this year are noticeably smaller than they were at the same time last year, according to early data published by the IRS. The average refund check so far this year is worth $1,395 as of Feb. 2, about 29% lower compared to the $1,963 average recorded last year. That is based on nearly 2.6 million tax refunds collectively worth about $3.65 billion. However, the IRS has cautioned taxpayers the average refund amount will likely change in the coming months as more returns are processed.

Yulia Navalnya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, took the stage at the Munich Security Conference on Friday to issue a message to those responsible for her husband’s death: “I want them to know that they will be punished.” News broke that Navalny. a Russian lawyer and activist who vocally opposed the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died while imprisoned in Russia on Friday at age 47. The overwhelming belief across the international community is that Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death, and Navalnya appeared to agree. In a translation of her comments, she said: I don’t...

The evidence of President Joe Biden’s criminal activity continues to grow. As has often been said, the wheels of justice grind slowly, but we’d like to see them get in gear in time for voters to know that their president is a crook. During testimony earlier this week before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski said “it is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family.” “The Biden family business was Joe Biden, period.” Simply put, Bobulinski said Joe has been the recognizable name that the Bidens...

1) Via my court source, "Zen Master," (who has never, ever been wrong about major decisions and/or timing: a leftist attorney argues that the Bragg NY case against Trump WILL encounter a delay of approximately a year, saying that like his tax case it is "going down the same road." 2) Trump's Truth Social is merging with another company in a deal worth $4 billion, much of that to President Trump, virtually nullifying the entire judgment by lunatic "Itchy" Erdogan---EVEN IF IT HELD UP on appeal. God works in mysterious ways. Oh, and Baris released his national poll yesterday with...