Free Republic

Rep. Abe Hamadeh said ranked-choice voting is pushed by corporate interests and confuses voters.. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., is joining forces with a fellow freshman lawmaker to renew efforts in Congress to outlaw ranked-choice voting nationwide. Hamadeh and Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, recently introduced the Preventing Ranked Choice Corruption Act that would amend the Help America Vote Act to ban ranked-choice voting. The bill pairs Begich, whose state uses ranked-choice voting, with Hamadeh, whose state has chronically dealt with issues of election integrity, and voter trust in ballot counting. "Ranked-choice voting destroys 'one person, one vote' in our country and...

On May 15, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the federal government’s efforts to be able to generally implement President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship – the guarantee of citizenship to virtually everyone born in the United States. The dispute is one of the relatively rare proceedings that came to the justices as an emergency appeal – on the so-called “shadow docket” – only to be set for oral arguments. Though the dispute comes to the justices through challenges to Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, the primary issue before the court on Thursday is whether lower-court...

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the head of the jihadist terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), praised President Donald Trump in an address on Wednesday for taking the “courageous and historic” step of lifting sanctions on his country. Sharaa delivered a speech to the Syrian people following an in-person meeting with President Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where President Trump concluded the first of three stops in a Middle East tour on Wednesday. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who first met Sharaa shortly after HTS toppled the half-century-old Assad family regime in Damascus, arranged and presided over the meeting. The...

TULSA, OKLA. (KTUL) — The Tulsa City Council will begin its meeting next week with a Hindu mantra prayer, despite a recent policy change to replace opening prayers with moments of silence for reflection. This decision follows a controversial pagan prayer at a council meeting last November, which prompted the council to vote in January for the change. A Tulsa City Councilor explained that the Hindu prayer is permitted because the individual signed up before the deadline to switch to moments of silence and reflection, which is at the end of this month. The pagan prayer last year drew attention...

Over the last several years, we have seen many colleges and universities make aggrieved statements in response to current events, from the election of President Trump to the death of George Floyd. The social implication is that if a school doesn’t speak out on an event, it is agreeing by omission. Many argue, however, that when colleges get involved in political issues, it only makes the political divide on campus grow larger. In fact, a recent survey from Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found that the majority of students don’t want colleges to make statements about political events at...

Trump's first 100 days mark a chaotic counterrevolution, tackling crises long ignored—and infuriating the very forces that allowed them to fester. Pundits are confused about what to make of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. Supporters talk of “flooding the zone,” believing Trump is making so many changes so quickly that his opposition is reduced to deer-in-the-headlights infancy. They must be right when the nation suffers daily Democratic pottymouth videos, vandalism of Teslas, infantile meltdowns at congressional witnesses, rioting against federal agents to protect illegal alien felons, protesting on behalf of women beaters, M-13 gangbangers, human traffickers,...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the tech giant to build its products in India, taking shots at the company’s moves to diversify production away from China and urging him to pivot Stateside. “I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “I said to him, ‘my friend, I treated you very good. You’re coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you’re building all over India.’ I don’t want you building in India.” Trump was referencing Apple’s commitment of a $500 billion investment in the...

For so many years now, the American intelligence community has been methodically hijacked by left-wing operatives working from the inside to sabotage political dissidents and cover up regime corruption. The left didn’t just politicize intelligence; they fully and totally weaponized it. And while the damage they’ve done to public trust and constitutional order could take decades to undo, someone has to start the cleanup… And Tulsi Gabbard just did. As Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard is taking a flamethrower to one of the worst corners of the intelligence swamp: the National Intelligence Council. And according to senior officials,...

Walmart – the nation’s largest private employer – warned of possible price hikes on Thursday given the uncertainty in the tariff environment. "We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible but given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement as the retailer reported its first quarter results, which met Wall Street expectations. Consumers could see price hikes as soon as the end of May, Walmart Chief...

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would skip Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul and downplayed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision not to attend. Speaking in Doha, Trump said the Russia-Ukraine war "has to stop." The president lamented the lives lost and money spent on the war effort. "We spent $350 billion there – just handed. Nobody even knows where the money is. There’s no accounting. There’s no one. It’s just give him money," Trump said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "I have to hand it to him. I think he’s the greatest salesman, maybe in history. Every time...

NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CHIP DAY On May 15, we recognize a morsel of a thing on National Chocolate Chip Day! This tiny piece of chocolate makes a big impact to any recipe you add it to! #ChocolateChipDay Have you ever wondered how a single ingredient would change a recipe? If it weren't for one curious baker, it would be hard to imagine where we would be without the invention of chocolate chips. In 1937, Ruth Graves Wakefield of Whitman Massachusetts must have been curious about what a little bit of chocolate would add to her cookies. While working at the Toll...

A district attorney in Colorado has given probation and community service to an illegal alien teenager who killed a young woman in an automobile accident. The accident occurred in Aurora last July when the 15-year-old, a Colombian national, was illegally driving at 90 mph in an area with a 45 mph speed limit. The victim, Kaitlyn Weaver, was coming home from work when the car plowed into her vehicle, effectively killing her instantly. She officially died two days later when her family took her off life support.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) proposed Wednesday to spend $1 billion per year on the state’s failing high-speed rail project through cap-and-trade programs, even as his budget drowned in massive deficits. As Breitbart News reported, the governor’s revised budget plan sought cuts to a variety of programs to make up a $12 billion deficit. He even proposed cutting off new enrollees for “free” health care to illegal aliens. But high-speed rail — a program that is decades late and $100 billion over budget without a single station being built — will continue to be funded, as Newsom continues to embrace...

A state district court judge in Missoula on Tuesday ruled that a 2023 state law banning many gender transition-related medical services for transgender minors is unconstitutional, prohibiting its enforcement. The 59-page ruling from district court Judge Jason Marks found that Senate Bill 99, backed by Republicans largely along party lines during the legislative session two years ago, violates the Montana Constitution’s rights to privacy, equal protection and free speech. The law had been temporarily enjoined before it was scheduled to take effect. The Montana Supreme Court upheld that block in 2024. The court found that plaintiffs, including transgender teen Phoebe...

When word emerged last year that Nicholas Cage will take a break from making a nonstop string of movies to play John Madden in yet another movie, it was a curiosity. We didn’t know then what we know now. Christian Bale appears in the same film, as the legendary Al Davis. Cage has been in some things that, well, aren’t good. Bale’s work rarely lands in that category. The mere mention of Bale’s name gives Madden cachet. Up the ying yang. (If you’re never seen The Prestige, what are you waiting for? If you start now, you will have...

Tal Shahar Carmon, a friend of the late Tze’ela Gez, shared Thursday morning on Kan Reshet Bet the heartbreaking account of Hananel Gez’s conversation with his children following the murder of their mother in a terror attack near Bruchin. “These were unbearably difficult moments,” she said. “Their father communicated it to them in an incredible way, allowing each child to respond in their own manner.” “He told them that he and their mother were on their way to bring their new baby into the world, and that on the way, a terrorist shot at their mother. He explained that he...

The country that was just recently considered the heart and key player of Europe, wants to deal a crushing blow to democracy. This is the only way to explain the decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, to classify the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a “confirmed right-wing extremist party”. The establishment of the republic has long been looking for an opportunity to remove the undesirable AfD from the political field of the country. Many were not happy with the fact that Alice Weidel’s party was not shy about telling the truth,...

A clinical trial led by Monash University found that the common diabetes drug metformin significantly reduced knee pain in people with osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity, potentially delaying the need for knee replacements. Over six months, participants taking metformin experienced greater pain relief than those on placebo, offering a promising, low-cost alternative treatment. ======================================================================== Metformin may reduce knee pain in overweight patients with osteoarthritis, offering a low-cost alternative to early knee replacement surgery, according to a Monash University trial. A widely used diabetes medication may help relieve knee osteoarthritis (OA) pain in people who are overweight or obese, potentially delaying...

In recent years, out-there, creative or trendy baby names were all the rage — now it seems like the classic, old-fashioned ones are popular again. According to Jennifer Moss, founder and CEO of BabyNames.com and baby-name consultant Taylor A. Humphrey, grandma-like names such as Eleanor, Eloise, Elodie, Alma, Margaret, Nora and Bennett, are “super trendy” for girls this year, originally reported by Yahoo! Life. “On the boys’ side, we’re seeing the ‘trad name,’ or old-fashioned names, stick — like Theodore, Oliver, Owen, Silas and Jasper,” Colleen Slagen, author of the forthcoming book “Naming Bebe,” also told the outlet. “…I’m hearing...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Turkey on Thursday to underscore his commitment to ending the war, as his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin stayed away, sending a junior delegation instead. Zelensky, who is slated to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in capital Ankara, wasn’t expected to meet with the Russian negotiating team that separately arrived in Istanbul on Thursday morning. But a meeting between lower-level Ukrainian negotiators and the Russians remains possible, perhaps as early as Thursday afternoon. No time for that encounter has been set so far. Senior U.S. negotiators are also scheduled to travel to Istanbul on...