Free Republic

The Federal Reserve (the "Fed") is a behemoth agency with the ability to manipulate and control the entire American economy. Our jobs, our finances, our savings and, ultimately, our livelihoods — all of them are subject to the decisions made at the Fed. But the Fed’s deliberations and operations happen behind closed doors. It’s time for us to know how the Fed makes its decisions. Congress must take immediate steps to provide transparency for the American people. No other institution has so much unchecked power. Look no further than the unlimited authority the Fed used in response to the COVID-19...

President Donald Trump praised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for curbing boats of illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel, telling the United Kingdom's leader he's doing a "fantastic thing." Trump stopped for questions with Starmer and his wife, Victoria Starmer, ahead of their meeting at Trump Turnberry golf club in Scotland on Monday. "Immigration is a big, a big factor. And I think, frankly, if they're coming from other countries, and you don't know who they are, and, are they coming from prisons? We have them where they came in from prisons who are moving them all out," Trump began....

Liberal comedian Bill Maher admitted that he was wrong about President Donald Trump on tariffs in a podcast posted Monday, and he’s "got to own it" because the economy is thriving. Maher made the admission on his "Club Random" podcast as he explained that he’s always truthful with his audience during a conversation with progressive YouTube host Brian Tyler Cohen. "Just to take an example, tariffs. Now I remember that I, along with probably most people, was saying at the beginning, ‘Oh, you know, by the 4th of July… the economy was going to be tanked by then,’ and I...

Delta Air Lines has sparked an internet uproar after allegedly canceling a flight from Florida due to 'ice on the runway' as temperatures neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside. She then reached out to the airline to ask about getting a reimbursement for her hotel room that night. But her request was denied because the cancelation was 'weather related,' according to a Reddit post shared by the flier's cousin on Sunday. A Delta agent told the frustrated customer the flight was called off 'due to a deicing situation, which means the runway was too slippery' for takeoff, as shown in a...

Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, urged the Supreme Court on Monday to overturn her sex trafficking conviction as her attorney simultaneously made overtures to President Trump. “We are appealing not only to the Supreme Court but to the President himself to recognize how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted,” attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement.

Today I was able to write, record, and produce seven 30-second commercials for True the Ballot. Here are the links: Commercial 1 https://youtu.be/AB9psWirDhU Commercial 2 https://youtu.be/l4diy2PXQrg Commercial 3 https://youtu.be/e4ThjCTU7fI Commercial 4 https://youtu.be/PR7R4RmHkBM Commercial 5 https://youtu.be/gYbj9G4xI2o Commercial 6 https://youtu.be/njNdkDhi6gQ Commercial 7 https://youtu.be/fT3fNfWJvX8 These are amateur productions, to be sure, but a good start. We are in the process of determining what budget is needed to conduct radio advertising in St. Joseph County, Indiana so that we can approach donors with a realistic goal. We also joined the League of Women Voters because they are diligent in documenting all public officials. It...

https://babylonbee.com/news/obama-presidential-library-design-faces-criticismCHICAGO, IL — As the Obama Presidential Center nears completion, it has faced significant criticism for a design that many say bears a striking resemblance to Castle Grayskull. The Obama Presidential Center sits on 19 acres, featuring a fruit and vegetable garden, an events facility, and a giant castle that holds the secrets to conquering the entire universe. "Our brilliant, forward-looking design is bold and exciting, and any resemblance to the final resting place of the Orb of Power is purely coincidental," said the center's lead designer, Hammond Hiss. "We think it captures the life and ideology of Obama perfectly."...

Explanation: Why was this collision so strange? In 2022, to develop Earth-saving technology, NASA deliberately crashed the DART spacecraft into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos. The hope was that this collision would alter the trajectory of Dimorphos around its parent asteroid Didymos and so demonstrate that similar collisions could, in theory, save the Earth from being hit by (other) hazardous asteroids. But analyses of new results show that the effects of the collision are different than expected -- and we are trying to understand why. Featured here is the time lapse video taken by the ejected LICIACube camera LUKE showing about...

This "Wizard of Oz" isn't in Kansas anymore. In fact, it's in Las Vegas, where Sphere is presenting the Judy Garland classic as you've never seen it – a 16K immersive experience on a screen larger than four football fields, with tornado effects, and artists and AI expanding the visions of Emerald City. Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz offers us a glimpse behind the curtain, and talks with Garland's daughter, singer Lorna Luft, about what she thinks her mother's reaction would have been.

Violence is accelerating under Syria’s new Islamist government, as is the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. This tragedy was entirely predictable. As far back as Barack Obama’s first term, critics warned that Washington’s flirtation with and assistance to Sunni Arab radicals would turn out badly. Nevertheless, Joe Biden’s administration persisted in that approach in an effort to overthrow the secular government of Bashar al-Assad. From the standpoint of US policymakers, Assad had committed two unpardonable sins. He transformed his country into Iran’s closest regional ally, and he forged closer ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Indeed, Russian air power played...

The Secret Service has launched an investigation into an incident over the weekend in which an agent tried to smuggle his wife onto a USSS carplane accompanying President Trump’s visit to Scotland, first reported here for @RCPolitics . The agent in question is a Phase 1 agent (new trainee in first years on the job) who was written up multiple times for misconduct at the Rowley Training Center where agents go through their preliminary training to become agents and can wash out if held to proper standards, according to two sources in the Secret Service community. Here’s the official Secret...

PELHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Federal investigators are charging two Chinese citizens with possessing counterfeit devices after they say they found altered gift cards in the pair’s SUV amidst boxes containing more than 5,000 gift cards. The investigation began on June 20, when the manager at CVS location in Hoover says he saw Jiadong Cao and Xuejun Zheng enter the store and swap out about 25 gift cards from a kiosk with cards they had brought into the store. Among the brands allegedly swapped: Nike, Macy’s and Best Buy. The store manager saw the pair leaving in a gray Lexus SUV...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV Approves Latin Mass in Texas DioceseFrom the feast of the Apparition of St. Michael (pre-55), when Pope Leo XIV was elected, the worldwide traditionalist community has looked to him and wondered what he will do with the ancient Roman Rite, the apostolic liturgy of the city of Rome. Notably, Pope Leo XIV chants and celebrates his own Mass (both things Pope Francis never or rarely did) and the Holy Father’s Latin is superb. Rumours circulated that Cardinal Prevost himself celebrated the Latin Mass, but I have not seen these rumours ever confirmed (please send me a...

In a groundbreaking archaeological discovery, Israeli researchers have unearthed a 5,500-year-old flint blade workshop near Kiryat Gat, southern Israel—the first of its kind ever found in the region. Announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the Early Bronze Age site sheds new light on the technological ingenuity and social complexity of ancient Canaanite civilization.The excavation, carried out at the Naḥal Qomem site—also referred to as Gat-Govrin or Zeita—revealed a full-scale production center where highly skilled craftsmen manufactured long, razor-sharp flint blades. This prehistoric workshop marks a major milestone in understanding the early development of urban society and professional specialization in...

Elon Musk joined the outpouring of outrage after a man and woman were beaten to a pulp by an unruly mob after an Ohio jazz festival. The victims were brutally attacked Friday night in downtown Cincinnati after being swarmed by the violent crowd, video of the horrific attack showed. A man in a white t-shirt is apparently shoved to ground by two men and repeatedly beaten as other members of the crowd jeer and join in. The gang batters the man for nearly a minute as he lay in the middle of the street, seemingly stepping on his head multiple...

President Donald Trump addressed the ongoing concerns of famine in Gaza on Monday, breaking from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Sunday comments in which he said, “There is no starvation in Gaza.” Trump was asked about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Turnberry, Scotland. “It’s going to be working where the United States will be helping with the food. You know, we have a lot of access to food; we got a lot of food ourselves, and we’re going to bring it over there. We’re also going to make sure that they...

Deion Sanders was flanked by his medical team during the first press conference of Colorado’s 2025 fall camp. The Buffaloes’ head football coach has recently been dealing with an undisclosed health issue and he cleared the air on Monday: Coach Prime had his bladder removed after a cancerous tumor was found in it. The bladder removal cured the cancer and that word "cure" is not something Sanders’ doctor, Janet Kukreja (director of urologic oncology,) uses lightly. Kukreja is able to declare Sanders cured of bladder cancer because the tumor was caught early enough. As a result, Coach Prime is back...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that a framework trade agreement struck between the European Union and the United States was “anti-Russian” likening it to a de facto ban on buying Russian oil and gas. The U.S. struck the deal with the EU on Sunday, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement afterwards that the agreement would help the bloc fully phase out Russian fossil fuels in favour of American alternatives. “Purchases of U.S. energy products will diversify our sources of supply and...

Police say they apprehended suspect after what authorities described as an officer-involved shootingPolice say multiple people were shot at a casino in Reno, Nevada, on Monday morning, and they have taken a suspect into custody. The local news outlet KRNV reported that Reno police responded to a report of an active shooter at the Grand Sierra Resort at about 7.25am. Within four or five minutes, officers found the suspect, who was then taken to a hospital after what police described as an officer-involved shooting. In the US, the phrase “active shooter” frequently refers to someone firing at multiple victims at...

[Catholic Caucus] German bishops looking to promote gender ideology in schoolsA 20-page document says Germany's Catholic schools should respect and make more visible students who are 'non-binary' and 'non-heterosexual.' The heretical German bishops are planning to introduce guidelines for Catholic schools promoting radical gender ideology without questioning its horrendous consequences for children.The German Catholic News Agency (KNA) reports that the Catholic bishops, or more precisely, their school commission headed by Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, are preparing a 20-page document on “sexual diversity” for Catholic schools.The paper says schools should respect and make more visible students who are “non-binary” and “non-heterosexual.” It...