Free Republic

A highly anticipated city council meeting Thursday could start the process of potentially removing a member of the council. Palm Bay Community Correspondent James Sparvero reported Tuesday that Councilman Chandler Langevin is back on the hot seat over what he said on social media about Indian visa holders and immigrants. Langevin said these Indians don’t care about America, are destroying the South, and should all be deported. -snip- “If someone only hires Indians, sends remittance checks back to India, campaigns in Indian elections, lobby’s (sic) to fly Indian flags over American government buildings, and has no family willing to serve...

Many experts are forecasting the end of a key provision of election law — enabling Republicans to shore up their advantage in the House, according to a new report. Democratic voting rights groups are preparing for a nightmare scenario if the Supreme Court guts a key part of the landmark civil rights-era legislation, the Voting Rights Act — a very real possibility this term. Ahead of the court’s Oct. 15 rehearing of Louisiana v. Callais — a case that has major implications for the VRA — two voting rights groups are sounding the alarm, warning that eliminating Section 2, a...

California authorities have started a crackdown on kratom and kratom-related products like these two 7-OH products pictured at a smoke shop in Daly City.A powerful new opioid drug that’s sold at convenience stores across California has been linked to three additional deaths, as public health officials warn of a growing public health crisis linked to the painkiller. The Los Angeles Department of Public Health announced three more deaths Friday morning that are linked to 7-Hydroxymitragynine, which is commonly sold as 7-OH. That brings the total deaths linked to the drug in LA to six, after LADPH announced three earlier deaths....

SiriusXM’s Stephen A. Smith on “Straight Shooter” Wednesday told Democrats to stop accusing their opposition of being “a threat to democracy,” calling the claim hypocritical. Former Vice President Kamala Harris became the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee despite garnering virtually no primary voter approval after former President Joe Biden dropped out and endorsed her on July 21, 2024. Smith said on his show that the Democratic Party has anointed their nominees in recent elections rather than letting Americans choose them — unlike Republicans since President Donald Trump entered politics. “See, when I talked about voting for Kamala Harris, I wasn’t excited...

Just one day after the two-year anniversary of the horrific October 7 attack by Hamas, it was announced that Israel and Hamas accepted the terms of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war. It was a feat that then-President Joe Biden could not accomplish. In fact, it was a feat that no other world leader could accomplish in the course of two years. And yet Trump, in 10 months, has ended a devastating war. Such a breakthrough would certainly warrant the Nobel Peace Prize.But on Friday it was announced that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the award....

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ The Freeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents: Ladies Night! *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time & effort...

An explosion at a Tennessee military munitions plant Friday left 19 people missing and feared dead, authorities said. Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said it was one of the most devastating scenes he’s ever seen. He did not specify how many people were killed but referred to the 19 missing as “souls” and said officials were still speaking to family. The blast, which people reported hearing and feeling miles away, occurred at Accurate Energetic Systems in rural Tennessee. The company’s website says it makes and tests explosives at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area,...

Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wants to make it illegal for the federal government to target Americans with propaganda. Republican leadership has already blocked recent attempts to do this.Massie introduced on Wednesday a bill to repeal the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2013. Representative Scott Perry (R-Pa.) co-sponsored the proposal. Massie explained in a press release:The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, legislation that ended a prohibition on the federal government exposing American audiences to its propaganda. I voted against that NDAA, and I offered an amendment to the 2026 NDAA to reinstate the original prohibition, but...

Public schools depend on a degree of consensus from parents and taxpayers regarding the basics of what their students are being taught. This trust is especially important in these chaotic times when many parents across the country have discovered that their schools are teaching children in a way contrary to their family and religious values by indoctrinating them with creepy views on gender and sexuality. I know of several high schools in Virginia caught in shameful gender and sexuality-related issues. Two noteworthy incidents happened in Loudoun County in very blue northern Virginia. The first involved a boy (claiming to be...

The sun will soon be setting on the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California’s Mojave Desert. Boosted by $1.6 billion in taxpayer-backed loans in 2011, the gargantuan project was hailed by President Obama’s first energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, as “an example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.” Instead, it has become yet another example of central planners squandering taxpayer money on an ill-conceived green-energy boondoggle. Covering five square miles of the sun-drenched Mojave Desert, 65 miles southwest of Las Vegas, Ivanpah features three 459-foot towers and 173,500 computer-controlled mirrors known as heliostats. “The mirrors reflect...

Mexico’s proposed 8% tax on violent video games.The Mexican federal government has announced a new 8% excise tax on violent video games. The justification? That violent games are responsible for violent behavior. Violence is indeed a heavy problem in Mexico, and organized crime has left significant parts of the country in a state of terror. But attacking video games seems a poor policy-choice that echoes the moral panics of the 1990s—when games like Mortal Kombat triggered congressional hearings and headlines about the corruption of the youth that led to the creation of the ESRB system. Such panics gain political traction...

Gov. Newsom signed SB 79 on Friday, allowing buildings up to nine stories near transit stops in eight California counties. The law overrides local zoning and takes effect July 2026. Mayor Bass and the City Council opposed it over local control concerns. Multiple exemptions make the bill complex, and cities await an official map to determine which properties are affected by the upzoning. On the campaign trail eight years ago, Gov. Newsom famously promised to support the construction of 3.5 million new homes in California by the end of this year. He’ll likely fall short by millions, but his latest...

The Washington Post reviewed leaked audio from four off-the-record lectures the tech investor delivered in San Francisco over the past month that fused beliefs about religion and technology.Tech billionaire Peter Thiel recently warned that Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and critics of technology or artificial intelligence are “legionnaires of the Antichrist” in private lectures on Christianity that connected government oversight of Silicon Valley to an apocalyptic future, according to recordings reviewed by The Washington Post.In the four, roughly two-hour lectures, which began last month and culminated Monday at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Thiel laid out his religious views to...

Most Democrats left President Trump conspicuously unmentioned as they cheered a potential end to the conflict, reflecting the tricky politics around the war and their party’s deep hostility to Mr. Trump.When President Trump announced a deal that could end the Israel-Hamas war, most Democrats were quick to cheer the promise of an imminent return of hostages and the close to a catastrophic conflict.But few were willing to credit Mr. Trump himself, reluctant to praise a president who has said he hates them and wants them jailed, and whom many of them regard as complicit in Israel’s brutal strategy in Gaza.“I...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would sharply reduce the number of H-1B migrants working in U.S. white-collar jobs. The bill, to be announced Tuesday morning, would begin to count visa renewals as new visas, so ending the current practice of allowing unlimited renewals for most of the 85,000 visas granted to companies each year. The unlimited renewals policy allows roughly 750,000 H-1B visa holders to retain white-collar, career-track jobs that would otherwise have gone to young U.S. graduates. Without the exemption, the number of company-employed H-1B visa holders would drop to roughly 250,000. The...

Yellow taxis and black cabs, big apple v big smoke, Trump Tower or the BT Tower? London and New York share a rivalry that goes back hundreds of years. The latest blow came courtesy of President Trump, who labelled Sir Sadiq Khan a “terrible” mayor and said the capital had considerably changed under his tenure. It is not the first time the US president has locked horns with Khan, who has been elected twice by Londoners. But are there any grounds to Trump’s claim — and is life in London better or worse than in Trump’s hometown, New York? How...

Adequate folate consumption is recommended for women in preconception and pregnancy to ensure cell growth and development. But new research has revealed the need to establish a safe upper limit on consumption. Current guidelines recommend supplementation with 400 to 500 micrograms (µg) of folic acid daily, starting at least one month prior to conception and continuing through the first trimester, to reduce the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Dr. Tanja Jankovic-Karasoulos has found excess maternal folate levels—caused by the dual impact of folic acid (FA) food fortification and higher-than-recommended supplementation doses during pregnancy—can be linked to...

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their development of new molecular structures that can trap vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or harvest moisture from desert environments.The chairperson of the committee that made the award compared the structures called metal-organic frameworks to the seemingly bottomless magical handbag carried by Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” series. Another example might be Mary Poppins’ enchanted carpet bag. These containers look small from the outside but are able to hold surprisingly large quantities within.The committee...

Former BBC presenter Jack Murley is claiming £48,000 in compensation after being sacked over 'deeply inappropriate' radio segments CommentsA BBC presenter has claimed he thought he was acting within the broadcaster's guidelines after being dismissed for "inappropriate" radio content. Jack Murley worked at BBC Radio Cornwall from 2019 until being removed from the airwaves in 2023. He was based in Truro until a "heated conversation" with his manager regarding his social media activity. Jack maintained he was "acting within the BBC's social media guidelines", an employment tribunal was told. He had posted his opinions on social media from 2022...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Friday announcement that the U.S. will host a new Qatari air force facility in Idaho has drawn the ire of the Trump administration’s closest allies, including Laura Loomer, who said she felt “betrayed” over the matter. In a flurry of social media posts Friday afternoon, Loomer unleashed on the administration’s announcement that it had signed the letter greenlighting the building of a Qatar Emiri air force contingent at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho. The air arm of Qatar’s armed forces, Qatar Emiri air force pilots would train to fly F-15s in the...