Free Republic

With each passing day it becomes more obvious that the left has become incapable of rational debate or political compromise, and must now embrace the only tools available to it: intimidation, coercion, and political violence. Whatever liberals might believe about their progressive politics, today their program is based not on persuasion or representation, still less on open-minded rational inquiry or practical solutions to problems. It’s based on force.The assassination of Charlie Kirk last month is of course emblematic of what the left has become. Kirk was murdered for speaking out against transgenderism. Dissenting from that ideology in particular is intolerable...

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 33-year-old Shreya Mishra Reddy, a technical program manager at Visa based in Austin. Business Insider has verified Reddy's employment, immigration status, and unsuccessful H-1B attempts. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I never dreamed of living in the US. I grew up in India and wanted to stay close to my parents. In December 2021, I moved to the States for a Master's program in engineering management at Duke University. After I graduated in 2022, I got a job at Visa as a technical program manager in 2023....

When I saw this headline in the WSJ — “Fractious Democrats Show Rare Unity” — I thought, What journalist who has been alive the last sixteen years would write that? Then, as I searched for the article, I found two others with essentially the same headline and storyline. Anybody who watches the Democrats knows that they almost always vote in lockstep. Of course, most journalists, who pretend they are independent, also write in lockstep. This is from the AP: “Democrats embrace a shutdown fight in a rare moment of unity against Trump.”And here is CBS, back in 2004: “Democrats show...

The Washington establishment is once again working overtime to undermine the best of President Trump’s restraint-oriented foreign policy instincts. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Congress is currently debating, includes three separate provisions that reduce the president’s ability to reposition or withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, Europe, and South Korea. The hypocrisy is blatant. Congress is content to avoid tough votes by abdicating its warmaking powers to the executive branch. It has not formally declared war since the Second World War. Yet when the President displays a willingness to end wars and consolidate America’s overstretched military, Congress seeks to...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is calling out media outlets for cutting off his remarks yesterday during a Q&A about Democratic demands to restore $200 billion in health care subsidies for illegal aliens.Both CNN and MSNBC broke away from Johnson’s remarks during a press conference yesterday when the Speaker began citing the Democrat’s continuing resolution (CR) bill that contains $1.5 trillion in spending demands, including restoring $200 billion in taxpayer-funded health care benefits going to illegals.Johnson had encouraged voters to check out Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s counter-proposal to the GOP’s CR, specifically directing viewers to got to page 57,...

The current federal government shutdown is framed by Democrats as an attempt to “protect Medicaid” enrollees from “devastating” cuts in coverage by the Trump administration. Republicans argue that Medicaid should be focused on truly medically vulnerable citizens and should not be paying for illegal residents or healthy adults who have returned to work. Both sides miss (or ignore) the real point: the U.S. healthcare system is failing Americans because it rewards bureaucracy, not care, effectively wasting trillions of dollars a year.Medicaid was never meant to be the sprawling entitlement it is today. In 1965, it was designed to cover less...

Industrial action is causing real economic pain.The strike that closed almost all of London’s underground network for four days in mid-September is estimated to have cost the UK economy £230 million ($307 million). It was arranged by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which campaigns for one of the most exploited groups of workers in British society: the capital’s tube drivers, who work 35 hours a week for £70,000 ($94,000) a year—almost double the national average salary.Two 24-hour strikes had been planned in November, but were called off after Transport for London (TfL) offered tube drivers a 4.5% salary...

VIDEOSee if you can spot a cameo appearance by The Terminator as Pope Leo and New Age pagans bless a chunk of ice. This video concludes with a chunk of ice turning the tables and blessing all of us in the best way possible.

The Trump administration is planning to roll out the first tranche of bailout payments for farmers in the coming weeks, likely using billions of dollars in funding from an internal USDA account, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter. But it won’t be enough: USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation fund — which President Donald Trump previously tapped to provide $28 billion in farm aid during his first-term trade war with China — has just $4 billion left in the account. Trump officials, including those at the Treasury Department, are looking at how to tap tariff receipts or other...

WOODFORD COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Woodford County family learned today that Ronald Exantus, the man who police say killed their 6-year-old son Logan Tipton in 2015, has been released from prison early for good behavior. The Tipton family says Exantus caused irreversible damage when he entered their home as a stranger and attacked their family while they were asleep. Logan died from his injuries, while his sister Dakota survived being stabbed. "He didn't just kill my son. He killed every member of my family, every single one of us, and every person that's sitting here today is a...

Watch the video of Curtis Sliwa on Fox News. He's pumped, excited, and in it to win it. He is not dropping out.

Nissan is recalling more than 19,000 US vehicles over the potential risk of batteries catching fire while rapidly charging, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday. Certain 2021-2022 LEAF SUVs equipped with a “Level 3” quick-charge port are included in the recall. The automaker estimated about 1% of 19,077 vehicles – or 191 LEAFs – have the defect. The lithium-ion batteries in the recalled vehicles may have excessive lithium deposits within their cells, increasing electrical resistance and leading to rapid heating of the batteries, authorities said. The overheating could cause a fire, increasing the risk of injury, they added.

Trump’s memo to Congress grants him wartime powers to strike, kill, and detain cartel fighters without trial ============================================================== AMERICA'S military is preparing to seize ports and airfields in Venezuela, it's reported - as Donald Trump declared a full-scale war on drug cartels. The President stunned Washington by formally declaring the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the Latin American “terrorist organisations”. The move, revealed in a secret memo to Congress, gives Trump sweeping wartime powers to strike, kill and detain cartel fighters without trial. And it comes as the Pentagon quietly builds a force big enough to grab...

For all the media and lefty expert bluster about how President Donald Trump was supposedly steering the U.S. economy into a recession iceberg, none of it materialized. And one top economist is finally admitting the obvious: The Trump economy is strong, and its obsessive detractors have been dead wrong. Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Sløk reportedly wrote in a Wednesday note to clients that “‘The consensus has been wrong since January,’” according to Fortune magazine business editor Nick Lichtenberg. While the average economic forecasts have said the U.S. economy would slow down “for nine months running,” wrote Lichtenberg, Sløk...

President Donald Trump on Friday set a Sunday deadline for Hamas to respond to his 20-point Gaza peace proposal, threatening that they would face “all HELL, like no one has ever seen before” if they reject the offer.

A physical confrontation at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station went viral after conservative activist Cam Higby pepper-sprayed a woman who was seen on video allegedly lunging at him and hitting him with his MAGA hat — an incident he said underscores his mission to confront political hostility head-on while promoting open debate through his "Fearless Tour," inspired by late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. Higby, who said his mission is to expose violence on the left and promote peaceful political dialogue, visited Union Station after hosting a debate event Wednesday at the University of Maryland. In a phone interview Thursday...

Swift is “dreamin’ ’bout a driveway with a basketball hoop” on her new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ which dropped Friday… On “Eldest Daughter,” Swift sings of accepting love that she never thought she’d find. “I’m never gonna let you down / I’m never gonna leave you out / So many traitors / Smooth operators / I’m never gonna break that vow…” “When I said I don’t believe in marriage / That was a lie / Every eldest daughter / Was the first lamb to the slaughter / so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire…”...

The killer traveled from Indianapolis to Versailles on the night of December 6, 2015 then randomly entered the Tiptons' home as they slept.

Michelle Obama and husband Barack Obama have both professed their love in sweet tributes on their 33rd wedding anniversary. The couple, whose marriage has been subjected to rift rumors all year, delighted in voicing their adoration for one another on their special day. Both Michelle, 61, and Barrack, 64, uploaded the same adorable selfie to Instagram in which they exuded happiness as they posed cheek to cheek. In her caption, Michelle said: 'We've been on quite the journey over the last 33 years—and yet, I love you even more today than the day we said "I do." 'Happy anniversary, @BarackObama!...

[Catholic Caucus] Top Catholic scholar: Pope Leo is following Francis’ ambiguity on abortionProfessor John Rist is denouncing Pope Leo's 'shameful' refusal to criticize Cardinal Cupich's award for pro-abortion Sen. Dick Durbin.Renowned Catholic professor John Rist shows that Pope Leo XIV, in his recent interview comments regarding the Durbin case, is “following in Bergoglio’s footsteps.” He even calls Pope Leo’s comments “shameful.”The American Pope, in September 30 comments to journalists, declined to criticize the fact that Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago had the intention of awarding Senator Dick Durbin even though this politician is a strong supporter of abortion. On the...