Free Republic

Another auto company bankruptcy has set alarm bells ringing that the US economy could be heading toward a repeat of the 2008 financial meltdown.This time, the trouble isn't mortgages — it's car loans, which have never been bigger at $1.7 trillion. That's not as high as home loans were in 2008, but experts warn it could be enough to trigger a domino effect reaching mortgages. More Americans are stretched thin, earning less in real terms and struggling to make ends meet, forcing lenders to hand out riskier loans just to keep car sales alive. Millions are already behind on subprime...

On Tuesday, President Trump doubled down on his trolling of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries after Jeffries’ epic meltdown over a meme video. After meeting with Democrat leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries at the White House, footage of their press gaggle was quickly remixed into a devastating meme. Instead of backing off, Trump doubled down. On Tuesday night, he reposted the MSNBC interview, this time with Jeffries again decked out in a sombrero and mustache, only now surrounded by four Trumps playing instruments in the background.

Immigration anxieties and a challenging job market have sparked an online backlash over China’s latest attempt at attracting global talent — a new visa program announced in August.The program, which was rolled out on Wednesday with the aim of attracting foreign professionals, will also test how China balances its immigration policy with its pursuit of technological ambitions.Under the new rules, young graduates — in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM — no longer need backing from a local employer and can enjoy more flexibility in terms for entry frequency and duration of stay.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer deliberately plunged the country into a government shutdown in an effort to improve his standing with his party’s far-left flank and score political points against Republicans amid Democrats’ faltering poll numbers, analysts and GOP lawmakers told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Schumer led Democrats in blocking a GOP spending bill to fund the government on Tuesday, triggering a funding lapse Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. The lead Democrats’ decision to embrace a politically risky shutdown comes as his favorability rating is underwater with Democratic voters and there is mounting speculation whether he will face primary or...

The Alabama Policy Institute (API) is dedicated to improving the lives of Alabamians by promoting public policy that honors the principles of free markets, limited government, and strong families. From this foundational perspective, we see Alabama’s Senate Bill 129, which restricts mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and offices in public entities, as a vital piece of legislation that deserves to stand up to judicial scrutiny. SB 129 was signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey (R) in March of last year. The core of the law is not to censor, discriminate, or whitewash but to restore balance between...

The concerned and worried American called me from Washington about those riots in Broadview just outside Chicago. What he’s worried about is a type of weed that strangles Chicago, but spreads to other towns as well. From Portland, Ore. all the way to New York. It kills everything. But this strangling weed has its roots in Chicago, carried and replanted by generations of Democrat activists including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The man on the phone had seen Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson raving that “jails and incarceration and law enforcement is a sickness.” And he’d seen Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker...

Politics is a dirty business. It always has been. But today, politics is sometimes too often synonymous with violence. While there were many catalysts that resulted in violence being seen as a “legitimate” form of political discourse, one stands out: Columbia University, 1968. That year, a combination of black and anti-war activists took over a building on the campus of New York’s premier university. They demanded that Columbia cancel a proposed nearby gymnasium that was claimed to be racist and end its relationship with a Department of Defense-affiliated think tank. The NYPD eventually ejected the activists after a series of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Facing an alarming health crisis across the U.S. military leadership, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Tuesday that he had hired legendary fitness trainers Hans and Franz to get all the top generals into shape. After growing concerned about the condition of the military's top brass, Hegseth reportedly placed an urgent call to Hans and Franz and offered them whatever it would take to bring them to the nation's capital to serve as the Trump administration's hand-picked experts to help the commanders of the armed forces become lean and fit. "These guys are the best at...

For a decade, conservative voices were erased by tech giants—yet the media now pretends censorship began only when comedians faced suspension. For every conservative in America who is delighted that at least some of the purveyors of hate speech and misinformation on the woke left are at last being held accountable, there is another who still adheres to the ideals of free speech. As UFC CEO Dana White recently said on 60 Minutes, “Probably the most important speech to protect is hate speech.” That diversity of opinion never surfaced among the left, however, over the nearly ten years during which...

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has banned the importation of raw milk cheeses from France, Italy and Switzerland in an effort to prevent an outbreak of lumpy skin disease in cattle. VIDEO AT LINK................... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpy_skin_disease

NEW YORK, NY — In addition to announcing that music star Bad Bunny would be performing, the National Football League issued a follow-up statement revealing that the Super Bowl halftime show would also feature authentic MS-13 backup dancers. Though critics blasted the NFL's decision to give the coveted halftime performance slot to an outspoken left-wing artist, the league doubled down by enlisting the help of actual Venezuelan gangbangers to participate in the show. "It's important for us to make it as diverse and inclusive as possible," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. "If we're going to put the spotlight on an...

Exclusive: new Senate documents show members of Congress, others placed under an intrusive surveillance for dubious reasons under now-defunct TSA program \=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\ Ahead of Tuesday hearings on the subject, the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) obtained documents showing three members of Congress, all Republicans, were followed under the TSA’s just-discontinued Quiet Skies program, which became infamous last summer when whistleblowers revealed bomb-sniffing dogs and Air Marshals were assigned to follow former Hawaii Congresswoman and future National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard. The members’ names have not yet been publicly released, but they were turned over to the Committee...

Saskatoon police say they have solved a mystery that goes back more than a century. The remains of an unknown female were discovered in a well shaft in Saskatoon's Sutherland neighbourhood in 2006. Now, almost 20 years later, she has been identified as Alice Spence (nee Burke), a woman of Irish ancestry who was about 35 years old at the time of her death. Investigators believe Alice, who lived in what was the town of Sutherland at the time, died of foul play sometime from 1916 to 1918. -snip The case sat for nearly 20 years without a lead until...

Netanyahu referred this week to a 'community' pushing out preferred messaging in US media — and boy are they making a princely sum In a meeting dedicated to harnessing pro-Israel media energy on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to a cohort of Israel’s influencers. “We have to fight back. How do we fight back? Our influencers. I think you should also talk to them if you have a chance, to that community, they are very important.”

Climate scientist Michael Mann has resigned from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) after fallout from controversial comments he posted following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Mann went on a social media spree in the wake of the murder, sarcastically describing the assassination as "white on white violence" and reposting multiple inflammatory remarks about the conservative leader, including one that referred to Kirk as the "head of Trump's Hitler Youth." Despite later attempting to backtrack, Mann has now resigned from his role as Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action. "I have reluctantly come to the...

As Washington enters a government shutdown, the Trump administration has erected safeguards to ensure President Donald Trump’s most hardline priorities continue unscathed.Agencies central to Trump’s agenda are shielding certain programs by declaring the federal employees who work on them essential or sheltering them under already approved funding streams — designations that will allow them to keep running through the funding lapse. (snip) “Remember Rahm Emanuel’s great quote: ‘You should never waste a crisis,’” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “Rahm Emanuel should be proud of the Trump team because they’re prepared to say, ‘Every day this is shut, we will...

Schematic diagram of the first room temperature all-solid-state hydride ion battery. Credit: DICP ============================================================ Scientists have built the first rechargeable hydride ion battery. Hydride ions (H⁻) have drawn interest as potential charge carriers for future electrochemical devices because of their extremely low mass and high redox potential. Yet, progress has been limited since no electrolyte has been able to provide the combination of rapid ion movement, thermal stability, and compatibility with electrodes that such systems require. A recent study in Nature reports a breakthrough from Prof. Ping Chen and his team at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), part...

Florida politician Anthony Sabatini has called for a complete halt to the H-1B visa program, saying the government needs to review how it operates. In a tweet on Monday, he wrote, “I am calling for a complete and total shut down of h-1b visas until we can find out what is going on.” Sabatini framed the move as a defence of American workers, amid growing concern among some conservatives that the program displaces US employees and affects wages. The H-1B visa program, which allows US companies to hire skilled foreign workers, currently includes an estimated 600,000–700,000 visa holders, with a...

Trump faces endless lawsuits, partisan judges, and extremist attacks—so why shouldn’t he use lawfare to make his enemies pay the same price? Kimberley A. Strassel of the Wall Street Journal, and probably many other people, are not pleased that President Trump is continuing to wage lawfare, depending on what you include in the term “lawfare.” Is the indictment of James Comey lawfare or an entirely proper prosecution of a man who sought to derail Trump’s first term with the Russia collusion hoax? Trump said during the campaign that his “retribution” for the legal attacks on him would be winning and...

Newly uncovered documents from the National Archives shed light on the extensive preparation materials used by the Biden White House, including palm-sized note cards that provided the former president with photos and basic biographies of prominent Democrats he had worked alongside for decades. These cards, obtained through an investigation into the administration’s use of an autopen, detail reminders for events where Biden interacted with figures such as Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. One card, prepared for the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony in January 2025, listed recipients with accompanying images and brief descriptions. It included a photo of Clinton along...