Free Republic

The IRS has unveiled higher federal tax brackets for 2026 to adjust for inflation. The standard deduction will increase to $32,200 for married couples filing together and $16,100 for single taxpayers. There are also changes to the long-term capital gains brackets, estate tax exemption, child tax credit eligibility and more. The IRS announcements come a day after the agency said it would furlough nearly half its workforce due to the ongoing government shutdown.

VIDEOWhen it's good news for President Trump, MAGA, and the country in general, you can count on Morning Mika to put on her sour face. Such was the case when Morning Joe announced the significant Mideast peace deal arranged by Trump. The result was the Morning Mika sour face. Give poor Mika credit. She was struggling mightily to keep from looking downright gloomy and the result was her signature sour face.

Last week’s bombshell claim—that Christopher Wray and Attorney General Garland signed off on the FBI’s surveillance of GOP senators because any probe touching elected officials must be approved as a Sensitive Investigative Matter (SIM)—should shock every defender of constitutional government.If true, it confirms what many have long feared: that the administrative apparatus of the federal state—the American Leviathan—no longer views itself as subordinate to our elected branches, but as a power unto itself.It tells us that the Leviathan has fully turned on its masters.The Founders built this Republic on a simple idea: that the people rule themselves through their elected...

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An NCAA Division II college football game between Central State University Marauders and Fort Valley State University Wildcats descended into chaos on Saturday after the final whistle had blown. Central State defeated Fort Valley State, 18-14, to spoil the Wildcats’ homecoming day. But the action didn’t end there. Markers lie on the ground before a football game Signal poles and down markers are seen before the Division II Football Championship held at McKinney ISD Stadium on Dec. 21, 2024 in McKinney, Texas. (C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) A video posted to social media by journalist Kalan Hooks showed...

Evil unchecked always spreads — and Democrats are proofA party that excuses murder fantasies today will excuse real murders tomorrow.Over the weekend, we learned that Jay Jones, the Democrats’ candidate for Virginia attorney general, had been fantasizing about killing his political opponents. Jones not only told colleagues he would shoot Republicans before shooting Hitler or Pol Pot but also expressed a desire to watch children die in their conservative parents’ arms.These comments would be disqualifying in any sane political culture. But after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month and the wave of anti-ICE violence that has followed, Democrats had...

Trump is not only scapegoating our city; he is plotting to make the neighborhoods of working families, immigrants and communities of color the staging grounds for authoritarian force.While many families prepared their children for school Monday morning, Sept. 29, I woke up to calls from parents in Chicago too afraid to leave their homes. Rumors of immigration enforcement were spreading, and the simple act of walking a child to school felt like too much of a risk. I am a mother and an Illinois state representative, and these calls hit me in two places at once: as a parent who...

'Academic killjoys' have slapped a trigger warning on Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Dr No. English literature students at the University of Portsmouth have reportedly been warned that the book, published in 1958, contains 'instances of racism, misogyny and xenophobia'. The university said the warning 'enables students to prepare emotionally' as well as engage 'more deeply' with the text. The book, which centres on 007's investigation into the appearance of two MI6 operatives in Jamaica, is among more than 50 texts slapped with a trigger warning. Course leaders claim the book's titular villain, Chinese-German scientist Dr Julius No, is 'problematic,...

RIDGEFIELD, Conn. (WFSB) - A Ridgefield woman is facing charges for attempted murder after allegedly poisoning a man she shares a child with. “I think it’s atrocious that anybody would attempt to murder anybody else,” said Susan Donnell of South Salem. State police began an attempted murder investigation after a patient at a Connecticut hospital was thought to be suffering from ethylene glycol poisoning. Ethylene Glycol is the main ingredient found in antifreeze. The 34-year-old victim told police he believed 33-year-old Kristen Hogan had poisoned him. He told troopers he had had a dinner party on Aug. 5th with family....

Greta Thunberg, who has failed to reach Gaza two times as part of an anti-Israel flotilla, decided to showcase Israeli barbarism on her Instagram this week. There’s only one small problem: That guy on the bottom right is a Jewish man held captive and starved nearly to death by Hamas jihadis. […] As soon as Greta found out, she quietly deleted the post. …

Today on TAP: He is doing a lot better than you might think.Even before he formally declared for mayor, Zohran Mamdani’s supporters and critics agreed on one thing: His toughest challenge would be addressing the issue of public safety in New York and winning over a highly skeptical police force. In July, all 13 NYC public safety unions endorsed Mayor Eric Adams, who has since dropped out. Mamdani has gone about the project of winning support from the police in the same fashion that has made him such an effective campaigner generally—by listening. And as mayor, he could end up...

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is 100 times larger in volume than the Amazon River and wraps completely around the frozen South Pole continent of Antarctica =========================================================== Scientists are warning of a potential global environmental catastrophe as a colossal ocean current, five times stronger than the Gulf Stream, risks collapsing. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), which is 100 times larger in volume than the Amazon River, encircles the icy continent of Antarctica. Similar to the Gulf Stream that brings warm water across the North Atlantic to the UK, the ACC plays a crucial role in influencing weather systems and climate...

Katie Porter’s “unhappy experience” in a viral interview has become the news cycle from hell. The bipartisan pile-on following the widely-circulated clip of her contentious sit-down with a local CBS news reporter was only hours old when a new video surfaced from POLITICO of the former House member berating a staffer in 2021 — the two clips fueling long-simmering concerns about her temperament and judgment. Together, they suddenly boiled over into the broader political zeitgeist, raising questions about just how durable Porter’s lead in California’s gubernatorial race really is. “Is this a disaster? Yes,” said Gale Kaufman, a veteran Democratic...

President Donald Trump had been sitting in the State Dining Room for an hour and twenty-two minutes Wednesday, listening patiently as a panel of right-wing influencers recounted various tales of violence at the hands of Antifa, when an unexpected visitor arrived at the door.Secretary of State Marco Rubio, stepping into the room from the Cross Hall, whispered a few words to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles before Trump asked him the question he’d spent the last hour or so quietly wondering: “Any news from the Middle East?”Indeed there was, Rubio told him. But he would have to wait...

The left needs fascists like vampires need bloodWithout the devil of fascism, they have no faith. So they make you wear the horns The post-Enlightenment West prides itself on having left religious myths behind. Sophisticated people scoff at demons, devils, and other silly superstitions. But ideas that once wore robes and halos simply change costumes. The idea of absolute evil re-emerges in secular form, and fascism plays the part of the devil in our political imagination.Once a movement or person becomes the secular Satan, debate ends and violence begins to look like the only remedy. That is why leftists now...

It's a pretty polarizing food: some love it, some not so much. Cottage cheese has been hard to find recently because sales are skyrocketing. So why is cottage cheese suddenly so popular? Good Question. Gen Z holds the answer. Cottage cheese has newfound fame and range thanks to TikTok, where foodies are sharing their favorite recipes featuring the ingredient. It's clear this old classic has new life. Jill Holter at The Wedge in Minneapolis says they can barely keep it in stock. "We are lucky when we have a full shelf like this. This is rare," Holter said. "Sales have...

TRUMP IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS STILL STRUGGLING WITH BIDEN’S LEGACY. Trump administration immigration authorities not only have to contend with violent attacks, rioters, angry activists, and others trying to obstruct enforcement of federal immigration law. They also have to deal with the obstacles former President Joe Biden left in their path. You’ve seen videos of resistance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents doing their jobs. Just yesterday, the Democratic mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, declared the city an “ICE-free zone.” Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), Johnson’s ally in the fight against enforcing federal immigration law, referred to federal immigration agents as Homeland Security...

MAGA commentators are stepping up as soldiers in Trump’s culture war to provoke confrontations against “Antifa” with the backing of DHS.TWO WEEKS AGO, THE X ACCOUNT for the Department of Homeland Security was being, all things considered, relatively normal.There was a repost of a video about law enforcement at the Charlie Kirk memorial, a video on how the Secret Service had dismantled a digital network that could have carried out attacks near the United Nations General Assembly, a video of part of Trump’s tone-deaf, chest-beating speech at the U.N., and posts and news updates on the Dallas ICE field office...

https://thespectator.com/topic/race-hustle-is-losing-power/Trump’s indifference to being called a racist may be having a wider effectDecarlos Brown Jr. should never have been on the streets. The man suspected of murdering 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, in Charlotte, North Carolina, in August had been arrested 14 times in almost as many years, charged with armed robbery, shoplifting and property damage. According to his sister, he is a schizophrenic who suffers from paranoid delusions. But he was free to roam in part because of the race hustle.Want to fire an employee? Good luck if that employee is black; such a dismissal would be presumptively...

An X user shared a video of a woman who claimed she was fired just two days after moving to Germany for an internship. The post, seemingly using her as an example, alleged that many Indians are facing similar experiences “amid rising xenophobia." In the video, the woman detailed her efforts to secure a position in Germany and the unexpected turn her internship took. Her experience drew attention and sparked widespread debate online. She explained that she found an internship at a startup in Munich while job hunting in Berlin. “Imagine moving cities for a new internship and then getting...