Free Republic

Partisan bickering overshadows real questions about taxes and the size of America’s government.As the partial government shutdown enters its second week, neither party is leveling with the American people about the hard choices required to get federal spending off a fiscally ruinous trajectory.President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats used covid-19 to justify chasing the mirage of a European-style welfare state without raising the necessary taxes to pay for it. Now, prodded by the left, party leaders have shut down the government in a bid to permanently extend what was sold in 2021 as emergency subsidies to help people struggling during...

“Cancel Netflix for the health of your kids,” Musk wrote on Oct. 1, quoting another user’s meme depicting Netflix’s “transgender woke agenda” as a Trojan horse entering a fortress labeled “your kids.” Musk’s anti-Netflix effort kicked off on Tuesday. Musk posted “This is not ok” in quoting the right-wing activist account Libs of TikTok’s surfacing of a clip of Netflix’s “Dead End: Paranormal Park” in which the protagonist says he is transgender. “Dead End Paranormal Park, a show on Netflix, is pushing pro-transgender on CHILDREN. This show is advertised for 7-YEAR-OLDS,” Libs of TikTok said, referring to Netflix’s TV-Y7 rating,...

“On behalf of AMC Theatres and the entire theatrical exhibition industry, I extend our sincerest appreciation to the iconic Taylor Swift for bringing her brilliance and magic to movie theatres this weekend,” AMC’s CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “Her vision to add a cinematic element to her incredible album debut was nothing less than a triumph.” Her newest theatrical effort, “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” is dancing to the top of box office charts with $33 million over the weekend. The “cinematic experience,” as the project has been dubbed, collected another $13 million at the international...

President Donald Trump and other high-ranking Republicans claim Democrats forced the government shutdown fight because they want to give free health care to immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Democrats are trying to extend tax credits that make health insurance premiums more affordable on marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and reverse Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big bill passed this summer. But immigrants who entered the country illegally are not eligible for either program. Here’s a closer look at the facts: CLAIM: Democrats shut down the government because they want to give free health care to...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tommy Gainey holed a long eagle putt from off the green at the par-5 13th to take the lead, and he closed with a 6-under 66 for a two-shot victory in the Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS for his first PGA TOUR Champions title. Gainey had to go through qualifying just to get into the field at Timuquana Country Club. He started the final round four shots behind Matt Gogel, and then pulled away in the middle of the back nine to hold off Cameron Percy of Australia. Percy was one shot behind when he was fooled...

By KGThanks to advanced DNA technology, law enforcement has solved a 12-year-old case. Authorities now say the unidentified human remains -- discovered more than a decade ago -- belong to Velma Louise Silva Lee of Napa. Lee was born in 1936 and had been missing for years. Advanced DNA technology opened the door and shed light on a case that has stumped investigators for more than a decade. The mystery surrounding a human skull found in Redding 12 years ago has finally been solved. The family of Lee now has some answers. "This person's name was finally realized after many,...

A mass shooting in downtown Montgomery on Saturday night left two people - including a teen - dead and a dozen others injured during what should have been a weekend of celebration in Alabama’s capital city. The gunfire erupted shortly after 11:30 p.m. Saturday near Bibb Street and Commerce Street. A total of 12 people were injured. Two people were killed - 17-year-old Jeremiah Morris and 43-year-old Shalonda Williams. Two juveniles are among those wounded. One has life-threatening injuries, police said, and the other suffered non-life-threatening injuries. In all, five victims remain in life-threatening condition, and seven sustained non-life-threatening...

More details have emerged from the stabbing and arrest of Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez.Fox 59's Angela Ganote obtained the probable cause affidavit from Indianapolis police on Sunday, in which the detective on the case describes a bizarre scene in which the former NFL quarterback allegedly confronted a truck driver on the job.There are also photos available of the alleged victim, though be warned they are graphic, showing a large gash in the 69-year-old's cheek. His family reportedly said the cut from the fight actually went through his cheek and hit his tongue.Sanchez, who was described by the alleged victim...

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani flashed a beaming smile in a cringeworthy photo with a top Ugandan official who pushed harsh anti-LGBT policies — that included life imprisonment for gay people. Mamdani met with Rebecca Kadaga in July during a break from the campaign trail — after winning the Democratic primary — that included a lavish celebration of his recent nuptials at a secluded Ugandan compound owned by his family. “Delighted to meet with Zohran Mamdhani (sic), incoming Mayor of New York City. Good luck in the next phase of elections,” Kadaga said in a caption of a photo of her...

A North Carolina school bus driver who calls himself “Ms. Sharon” has been charged with sexually assaulting several boys whom he lured to his house, cops say. Leetwain Darrell Tate — a 48-year-old a male also known as just “Sharon” — was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of statutory rape and six counts of indecent liberties with a minor, according to Charlotte-Mecklenberg police. He is accused of assaulting at least four boys age 14 and 15 years old, but officials said there could be more victims. The children were found to be staying at his house, and one...

CHICAGO (AP) — Storming an apartment complex by helicopter as families slept. Deploying chemical agents near a public school. Handcuffing a Chicago City Council member at a hospital.Activists, residents and leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest city.“They are the ones that are making it a war zone,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Sunday on CNN. “They fire tear gas and smoke grenades, and they make it look like it’s a war zone.”More than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested since an immigration crackdown started last month...

President Donald Trump on Sunday blasted a federal judge who blocked his deployment of Oregon National Guard troops, while repeatedly referring to her as a man. Trump appointed U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, who on Saturday rejected the federal government’s assertion that Portland faced a “danger of rebellion” and that “regular forces” were unable to execute federal law. Speaking outside the White House, Trump said Immergut “ought to be ashamed of himself.” “I wasn’t served well by the people that pick judges. I can tell you things like that are just too bad. I appointed the judge and he...

"It’s written in black and white — Page 57, Section 2141 of Chuck Schumer’s counterproposal. Republicans made it illegal for Medicaid to reimburse care for illegal aliens at higher rates than for U.S. citizens. Democrats are now demanding to reverse that," Johnson wrote on X House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday rejected Senate Democrats' who are claiming they are not seeking to allow illegal immigrants to receive health care as a condition for continuing government funding to end the shutdown."As a condition for ending the Democrat shutdown, Democrats want hospitals paid MORE to treat illegal aliens than American...

A 41-year-old man was arrested on Sunday outside the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., on charges of possessing a Molotov cocktail and making threats to kidnap or injure people, according to police. The incident comes one week after a man rammed his pickup truck into the front of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing four worshipers and injuring eight others. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police after he set the chapel on fire, burning it to the ground, authorities...

A 41-year-old New Jersey man was arrested outside Saint Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Sunday for allegedly possessing a Molotov cocktail, authorities said. Louis Geri, of Vineland, had set up a tent on the steps of the Cathedral, which was due to hold its annual Red Mass, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said in a news release. Red Mass is a Catholic Mass that celebrates the start of the judicial year and offers prayers for wisdom, counsel, and fortitude for judges, lawyers and public officials. Officers assigned to a detail for the Red Mass spotted Geri and his tent...

After months of emergency rulings, the justices will be asked to render final verdicts on economic and immigration policies at the core of Trump’s presidency.The Supreme Court and President Donald Trump are headed for a reckoning.After months of terse emergency rulings that largely avoided major confrontations with the new administration, the justices will open their new term Monday faced with the need to render full, final verdicts on policies at the core of Trump’s presidency.“It really is going to be a showdown,” said Jennifer Nou, a law professor at the University of Chicago. “So many of the president’s big-ticket constitutional...

Preschoolers with LGBTQ parents or who identify as LGBTQ can't be shut out of religious preschools that are part of Colorado's state-funded preschool program, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision, which upholds a key part of a lower court decision, represents a major win for the state and a defeat for the two Denver-area Catholic preschools at the center of the case. Tuesday's decision provides the latest answer to a question being asked in several cases percolating in state and federal courts: Can private religious schools that accept public education dollars refuse to enroll certain kids based on...

Lawyers have a notoriously bad (and often well-earned) reputation. But one thing you have to hand them is this: If there's a loophole, they'll find it. Such appears to be the case with those advising the Trump administration as it navigates the bevy of lawsuits filed in an effort to #ResistWeMuch its efforts to enforce immigration law and restore law and order to a number of blue cities and states. As Jennifer Oliver O'Connell reported, on Saturday, an Oregon district court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration's deployment of 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. n...

Doesn’t Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth realize that push-ups are passé? His speech to an audience of generals he’d summoned to Washington has mystified and outraged critics who think his obsession with physical fitness is out-of-date at best and ridiculous at worst.“Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops,” Hegseth told the assembled brass. “Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.”“Today, at my direction, every member of the joint force, at every rank, is required to take a PT test twice a year,...

Great speech from President Trump on Navy 250 Birthday.