Free Republic

Rep. Hillary Cassel of Boynton Beach is leaving the Democratic Party and will join House Republicans for the upcoming term. “Today, I am announcing my decision to change my party affiliation from Democrat to Republican,” Cassel wrote in a prepared statement.“This decision was not made lightly but comes from a deep sense of responsibility to my constituents and my commitment to the values that guide my service. I will be joining the Republican Conference of the Florida House of Representatives because I believe in their vision for a better, more prosperous Florida.”Cassel earlier this month posted on X, informing voters...

The world is bracing for Donald Trump’s tariffs and doesn’t think he’s bluffing. On my trips to Beijing in recent years, Chinese officials often seemed confident they could work with someone who was a businessman at heart. That confidence seems to be a thing of the past. Both U.S. political parties have turned antagonistic, and Mr. Trump seems in a far less conciliatory mood. He has vowed to add 10 percent to the tariff on imports from China and impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, the two largest U.S. trading partners. Perhaps it’s because he has...

A suspected home invasion in Bradenton turned fatal late Thursday night after the homeowner confronted two intruders and shot one of them, the sheriff’s office said. Just after 9 p.m., deputies say two masked men were caught on the homeowner’s video surveillance entering the back of a house on the 6700 block of Hickory Hammock Circle in the River Club community. “This is the state of Florida. If you want to break into someone’s home, you should expect to be shot,” Sheriff Rick Wells said at a press conference Friday morning. The homeowner, who was inside at the time, fired...

TORONTO (AP) — Two top Canadian Cabinet ministers are visiting Palm Beach to talk border security and trade with the incoming Donald Trump administration as Trump threatens tariffs on all Canadian products. New Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly will be in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday for the talks this week, said Jean-Sébastien Comeau, a spokesman for LeBlanc. LeBlanc said last week he would meet with Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming “border czar,” after Christmas to discuss Canada’s plan to secure the border as part of a bid to avoid the sweeping tariffs. Comeau said LeBlanc and...

It’s hard to miss. Our country is rapidly evolving into two Americas. One America consists of less than a thousand billionaires who have an unprecedented amount of wealth and power and have never ever had it so good. The other America, where the vast majority live, consists of tens of millions of families who are struggling to put food on the table, pay their bills and worry that their kids will have a lower standard of living than they do.

$10K was spent on a 'bearded lady' ice skating show, just one of numerous examples of frivolous federal spending highlighted by the Sen. Rand Paul ... The 2024 Festivus Waste Report found that the Biden-Harris administration spent over $1 trillion this year, including giving a $10,000 grant to "Beards on Ice" — an ice skating drag show on climate change put on by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a self-described "queer cabaret arts organization.".. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent $20 million on a Sesame Street spin-off show in Iraq, titled "Ahlan Simsim," in an effort to promote "inclusion" and "mutual...

Elon Musk is gunning for public media.In his new role advising President-elect Donald J. Trump, Mr. Musk has floated sweeping cuts to the federal government, including the elimination of entire departments and the firing of agency leaders. One of the most concrete proposals on his list is eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding that the government funnels to PBS and NPR stations, home to cultural touchstones like Elmo, Big Bird and “Fresh Air.”For decades, NPR and PBS have overcome similar threats. But this year, “the attention and intensity” of the calls to defund public media seem greater,...

Moscow has warned Donald Trump against resuming the testing of nuclear weapons when he takes office, saying it would “not rule anything out” in response to US aggression. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister who oversees arms control, noted that Mr Trump refused to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty during his first term. Referencing this refusal, Mr Ryabkov said: “American policy in its various aspects is extremely hostile to us today.” “So the options for us to act in the interests of ensuring security and the potential measures and actions we have to do this - and to send politically...

The United States is expected to announce that it will send $1.25 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, U.S. officials said Friday, as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on Jan. 20. The large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155 mm- and 105 mm artillery rounds, officials said. ... Earlier this month, senior defense officials acknowledged that that the Defense Department may not be able...

At first we felt a little sorry for you, Doug. We had naturally assumed you'd been pressed into service by the Democratic Party, that your "marriage" to Kamala Harris—several months before launching her U.S. Senate campaign—was arranged via some internal Craigslist for politically ambitious bachelorettes eager to liberate themselves from the Sugar Daddy lifestyle. When Joe Biden dropped out of the race and you were too busy to take your wife's call because you were "messing around" with your "gay friends" after "SoulCycle class" in West Hollywood, we weren't the least bit surprised. We couldn't have been more wrong. The...

After 10 years of betraying their voters the Conservative Party of the U.K. has been abandoned by its members for the Reform Party. A few days ago Reform Party paying membership surpasses the Tories after the Reform Party was strategic in removing the feckless, back-stabbing Tories in the election held earlier this year. In 2016 Brexit was predictive of Trump's surprise defeat of D.C.'s heroine Hillary Clinton and now the election repudiation of the Conservative Party this year predicts a MAGa voter backlash if the GOP under President Trump does not stop the foreign invasion and colonization of America and...

In a recent op-ed for The Hill, two Democrat lawyers urged Congress to reject the Electoral College vote to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. Former editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review, Evan Davis, and David Schulte, who had served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, quoted the 14th Amendment, which states: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of...

As CNN‘s ratings plummet to record lows, some so-called journalists at the network claim that the failure is due to the network’s soft approach to President-elect Donald Trump. According to an anonymous report in The Washington Post, CNN journalists said that Trump’s coverage during the 2024 election cycle was insufficiently critical. They claim that the decision to hold a town hall with Trump last year also upset both staff and viewers. “It is widely felt at CNN that we didn’t meet the mark,” one insider said of the network’s handling of the election. “I think a lot of it can...

The answer to the age-old question “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?” is about to change. Warner Bros. Discovery has decided not to renew its deal for new episodes of the iconic children’s series, according to The Hollywood Reporter, forcing the beloved characters to seek a new home. Before you get too worried, however, previous episodes of Sesame Street will remain available in Max‘s library through 2027, per the streamer’s licensing deal. “It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children’s series and we are thrilled to be...

America First Legal (AFL) released some damning photos related to President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, according to a Monday announcement. The pictures appear to show both Biden’s meeting with Hunter’s Chinese business associates and Chinese President Xi Jinping, which contradicts the president’s claims about his involvement in his son’s business dealings. (There's a ton of photos at the link)

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A judge has ruled that the Georgia state Senate can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of a inquiry into whether she has engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump but is giving Willis the chance to contest whether lawmakers’ demands are overly broad. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram filed the order Monday, telling Willis she has until Jan. 13 to submit arguments over whether the subpoenas seek legally shielded or confidential information. Ingram wrote that the would issue a final order later saying what Willis had to...

Universal Pictures has announced on X that acclaimed director Christopher Nolan’s next film will be an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. The British director’s next project is tipped to be a “mythic action epic” and will be shot with cutting-edge IMAX films. It will be released in theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026. The film’s cast is star-studded, as Nolan has assembled an all-star roster to do justice to one of the most influential writings in human history. Cast members for this project include Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron. This will...

Explanation: No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffuse and shows the gradual transition to darkness we experience as twilight. With the Sun illuminating the scene from the right, the cloud tops reflect gently reddened sunlight filtered through the dusty troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet's nurturing atmosphere. A clear high altitude layer, visible along the dayside's upper edge, scatters blue sunlight and fades into the blackness of space. This picture was taken from the...

An animal sanctuary in Shelton, Wash., is under quarantine after a bird flu outbreak killed 20 big cats at the facility over the past month. The Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington called the deaths "heartbreaking," confirming the virus has claimed more than half its animals, including four cougars and a half-Bengal tiger, since late November. "Our sanctuary is under quarantine to protect our remaining animals and prevent further spread," the center said in a statement, adding it will remain closed to the public until further notice. The sanctuary said the outbreak may have been caused by respiratory secretions passed...

There were always calls to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting but it never happened. As soon as conservatives would start talking about media bias and cutting CPB's budget, liberals would roll out Big Bird as the symbol of what conservatives wanted to cut. Of course this only proved the point. Conservatives weren't against Big Bird, they were against the news bias that routinely permeated the adult fare. Painting conservatives as anti-Big Bird was sort of par for the course at CPB. For decades, NPR and PBS have overcome similar threats. But this year, “the attention and intensity” of the...