Free Republic

Our country cannot get its fiscal house in order unless and until it starts slowing the explosion of Medicare spending.The budget reconciliation measure Congress recently passed includes some important reforms designed to help reduce entitlement spending. But any realistic assessment of the nation’s fiscal position reinforces why Washington must go much further in reducing spending than the half-measures enacted in recent weeks.In March, as lawmakers were beginning debate on the “big, beautiful bill,” the Congressional Budget Office released its annual version of the “Long-Term Budget Outlook,” which features economic and budgetary projections for the next three decades. The CBO report...

Auditors found one in 35 voters didn’t have proof of citizenship — then looked the other way.After revelations that Oregon’s “motor voter” system registered hundreds of possible noncitizens, the state government launched an audit. Auditors found one in 35 voters didn’t have proof of citizenship — then looked the other way.Oregon officials discovered in September hundreds of potential noncitizens had registered to vote. They examined limited data and eventually found the motor voter system had placed more than 1,600 possible ineligible voters on the rolls. State leaders commissioned an audit — which, as Oregon journalist Jeff Eager first reported, found...

According to a statement released by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), LMU researcher Enrique Jiménez was able to decipher a Babylonian hymn that had been lost for 2,000 years. Jiménez, in collaboration with the University of Baghdad, is working on digitizing all cuneiform tablets from the legendary ancient Sippar Library, once located on the banks of the Euphrates River north of Babylon. Using artificial intelligence, the team was able to identify 30 different fragmentary pieces from the same composition, which turned out to be a previously unknown hymn consisting of 250 lines. The piece was written by an ancient...

Perhaps it’s too soon to mark nuclear power’s revival in the U.S. but there is a burst of activity that should ultimately yield a new generation of advanced nuclear plants and small modular reactors.This is especially true for major industrial energy consumers—which now also includes data centers—where there is a strong economic incentive to use more nuclear power instead of natural gas and intermittent renewables.In Illinois, Meta recently signed a long-term agreement to buy nuclear power from Constellation’s Clinton nuclear plant, the latest in a slew of deals between big tech and the nuclear industry. Constellation also said it would...

Live by the federal subsidy ... well, you know the rest. And if not, Robert Kennedy Jr just served up a big reminder.Republicans in Congress got thwarted in their attempt to defund providers delivering pediatric sex-change therapies. Instead, the HHS Secretary will act within his authority to deny Medicare and Medicaid funds to hospitals and clinics that provide these services, forcing them into a choice between funding for actual care and pandering to the extreme Left at the expense of children. National Review got the scoop:The Department of Health and Human Services will soon begin the rule-making process to prohibit...

Late Thursday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal published an "exclusive" involving President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. That "scoop," as our Joe Cunningham notes, amounts to a "bawdy" birthday card purportedly sent by Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday...in 2003. Setting aside the time, context, and rather ridiculous nature of the described communication, WSJ noted that Trump flat-out denied having authored the note. "This is not me," he said in response to the story. "This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of...

There's rarely a dull moment in New York City politics, and the mayoral race is no exception, with all of the candidates in the race continuing to make the push to convince Big Apple residents that they are the one to lead the iconic city for the next four years.Democrat nominee and media darling Zohran Mamdani, for instance, was paraded around Capitol Hill on Tuesday by another admitted Democrat Socialist, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in an effort to win over Congressional holdouts in their party who have not yet endorsed Mamdani in part over concerns about his pro-Hamas, antisemitic views...

Ireland appears closer to passing a bill that will ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank, sparking sharp criticism from US officials who have signaled the move could harm Dublin’s relationship with Washington. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee accused Ireland of “diplomatic intoxication” Tuesday in a sharp rebuke of the draft legislation, invoking a derogatory stereotype of the Irish people. “Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober...

We already knew that Donald Trump was acquainted with Jeffrey Epstein. The two were both young New York City multi-millionaires back in the day and ran with some of the big dogs in a big town. There are photos of Epstein with Trump and his then-girlfriend, Melania. So one wonders why it would be BLOCKBUSTER news on the pages of the Wall Street Journal that Trump received an invitation to Epstein's 50th birthday before anyone with a badge and gun knew the financier was a sick pervert. No, really, that's the big news from the Journal that has been leaking...

30 second video at the link

CBS announced the cancellation of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert - just days after the host blasted the network's $16 million settlement with President Trump as a 'big fat bribe.' Colbert's show, which began in 2015, will now come to an end in May 2026, executives with the network and Paramount, its new parent company, announced on Thursday. 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will end its historic run in May 2026 at the end of the broadcast season,' they said in a statement. 'We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire the Late Show franchise at that time,'...

The CEO of an AI company has come under heavy scrutiny after being caught by a Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert in Boston — while romantically embracing one of his employees. The footage, which went viral on social media on Thursday, shows Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and the firm's chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, tightly embracing, only to awkwardly dash out of the frame. Both are reportedly married with kids. "Oh, look at these two," Coldplay singer Chris Martin narrated, as Byron comically ducked out of view after realizing he was on screen. "Oh, what... either they’re having an affair...

Two leftist congresswomen have introduced an illegal-alien amnesty bill they have disguised as a “reasonable, compassionate, and final solution to America’s immigration crisis.” Republican Maria Salazar of Florida and Democrat Veronica Escobar of Texas call their bill “The Dignity Act.” They claim it will secure the southwest border, deter illegal immigration, and provide a tough pathway to permanent legal status for illegals. Critics claim the bill is an amnesty that will not only halt mass deportations, but also permit illegal-alien gang members to stay in the country. Frighteningly, nine Republicans have co-sponsored the bill. DetailsSalazar, the daughter of Cuban exiles,...

Michelle and Barack Obama officially dispelled the rumors they were divorcing during a recent episode of Michelle’s podcast IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. But they had one defender in their corner all along: Former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The mainstream media, print and broadcast, has largely ignored the fact that FOX News recently achieved an unprecedented milestone in the 75 year history of U.S. commercial television.FOX News not only has more viewers now than the other two mainstream cable news channels combined (Trump Derangement Syndrome channels CNN and MSNBC), but also for the first time is outranking the three major legacy commercial broadcast networks that also suffer from TDS (ABC, CBS, and NBC).As FOX News Media announced in a news release on July 15:During the week of July 7–13, FOX News Channel (FNC) averaged 2.4 million viewers in...

In California, some radical far-left ideas don't seem to be drawing the applause they were expected to draw.Which brings us to one state Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica statehouse senator who put out a proposed law so stinky, so stanky, so vile, he skedaddled backward as fast as his little legs would carry him.At a time when the County of Los Angeles has witheld rebuilding permits for all but seven of the 17,000 homeowners who lost their homes in the fires they caused, Allen's SB 549 authorized the state to go around buying up burned properties in fire-ravaged areas,...

Deep learning ‘powerful tool’ for future climate change scenarios, says studyChinese researchers have developed 30,000+ artificial intelligence-induced climate mitigation scenarios, according to a study published on Nature Climate Change journal's July issue. The published study covers the potential of deep learning (DL) merged with integrated assessment models (IAMs), offering a base for handling climate mitigation scenario generation. “IAM based scenarios often face challenges such as modelling biases and large computational burden. Here we develop a DL framework to generate key variables through synthetic mitigation scenarios,” the study said. According to the study DL is a “powerful tool for extracting hidden...

Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the southern province of Sweida on Thursday after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze minority that threatened to unravel the country’s post-war transition. The conflict had drawn airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel in defense of the Druze before a truce — mediated by the U.S., Turkey and Arab countries and announced Wednesday — halted most of the fighting. However, Syrian state media said Thursday that Druze militiamen had launched revenge attacks on Sunni Bedouin communities, leading to a wave of their displacement. There were some reports of...

Rice prices in Japan soared 99.2 per cent in June year-on-year, official data showed Friday (Jul 18), piling further pressure on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ahead of elections this weekend. The price of the grain already rocketed 101 per cent year-on-year in May, having jumped 98.4 per cent in April and more than 92.5 per cent in March. Overall, Japan's core inflation rate slowed to 3.3 per cent in June from 3.7 per cent in May, the data from the internal affairs ministry showed.

“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”