Free Republic

Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby: Palestinian in Germany: "With God's help, we will finish you off. We will destroy the last Christian." From Ncole ✡︎ Oct 9, 2025.

Summary Shutdown standoff overlooks rising national debt and fiscal health issues Debt growth outpaces economic growth, threatening fiscal stability 'Messaging war' distracts from underlying problems, budget expert says WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The ongoing shutdown debate between Democrats and President Donald Trump's Republicans is largely avoiding the difficult fiscal issues clouding the country's future - the rising national debt and the long-term financial health of Social Security and Medicare. The fifteenth partial federal govern since 1981 has been sparked by Democrats' demand for spending, which would cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade according to the nonpartisan Committee...

The changes follow a class action lawsuit challenging the longstanding fee structure of the entire U.S. real estate system. An important sea change has taken place in the United States' $136 trillion real estate market. It stands to impact nearly everyone buying or selling a home. And it’s due to a game-changing lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors. Consumers face new rules designed for their benefit. But the overhauled system and the fallout are still being figured out. Jared Breit helped spark the real estate revolution. He joined a class action lawsuit challenging the longstanding fee structure of...

Protesters battled with police outside an ICE facility in Chicago on Saturday as demonstrators in Oregon hosted a 'laser party' in an attempt to deter federal helicopters from the area. The streets of Chicago turned chaotic as protesters clashed with cops outside the Broadview ICE facility, leading to multiple arrests after demonstrators breached the perimeter. Hundreds of protestors flooded the streets around the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility earlier in the day for a march against Trump Administration policies. One person was carted away in handcuffs as others were trampled by officers - wielding heavy batons - in the...

In hindsight, it was clear all along that President Trump didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet in being snubbed, he nonetheless proved something extremely important.His rejection reveals that the official claim of the award is false when it says the prize goes to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”That standard describes exactly the peace Trump has achieved this year by settling conflicts around the world,...

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Did you know the first newspaper in the future United States lasted one day? The official reason the governor of the Massachusetts colony shut down Publick Occurrences was because publisher Benjamin Harris — a stern advocate of freedom of speech — failed to get a license. The unofficial reason was the British government did not like what Harris’ publication had to say, characterizing its content as “uncertain reports.” More than a decade would go by before the monarchy would allow another newspaper to be published, one with the king’s approval. That was in the fall of 1690 — roughly 85...

This is one piece of gold that President Trump is never going to get his short, stubby fingers on: an 18-karat gold medal with three naked men embracing, awarded to those who promote peace, democracy and human rights. The Nobel Peace Prize has been given to some beauts — like Henry Kissinger, for helping end the Vietnam War he perpetuated to aid Richard Nixon’s re-election. But the prize was not designed for someone like Trump. The Norwegian Nobel Committee would no doubt discontinue the award before it would give it to him. His longing is partly inspired by his jealousy...

American historians think Trump is birthing a totalitarian regime. In fact, they’ve been working in one entirely of their own making.After attending the Organization of American Historians annual conference in Chicago, IL earlier this year, I felt compelled to compose a reflection of the event, primarily focusing on one session — a session titled “The Election of 2024.” As a historian who followed the presidential election closely, I was eager to hear how some of my colleagues viewed the roles of media and money on the election, as well as how they portrayed the most important issues to voters...

Since immigration-enforcement agents began their descent on Chicago, acting with seemingly unprecedented speed and ferocity, Evelyn Vargas and her colleagues at Organized Communities Against Deportation have been in a frenzy. They help run an emergency hotline that refers people who have been detained to immigration lawyers and directs their families to support services such as food pantries, emergency housing, and mental-health care. (On a single day last week, it took 800 calls.) And they oversee a team of 35 “rapid responders” who have been sprinting across the city to film arrests, aiming for at least two to arrive on the...

Less than a year before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth’s brother, Edwin Booth, saved Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, from being injured and possibly killed by a train. Edwin Booth was regarded as one of the great Shakespearean actors of the 19th century. He was the manager of the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City, where many Shakespearean productions were made in 1862. Edwin was a supporter of Lincoln and a Unionist, and he was not close with his brother, who supported secession. In 1863 or 1864, the exact date is uncertain, Edwin Booth and Robert...

Perhaps one of Donald Trump’s greatest strengths has always been the fact he simply doesn’t care what others think. Well, at least about most things. Doubtless today he will be feeling a little bruised after being overlooked for his much-longed-for Nobel Prize.Otherwise, his often cavalier policy decisions and unflinching pursuit of the deal are largely immune to political opinion. Guided instead by visceral instinct and astonishing self-belief, it’s an approach predicated on the conviction that if the president roars loudly enough, the school bully will back down.It’s precisely this approach that has led some Jewish people in Britain, myself included,...

This addresses the Medicare Advantage collapse. We're losing ours next year. What a mess this is. The video is 31 mins long

Nigel Farage portrays his Reform UK party as a unique phenomenon that has burst on to the global stage, its meteoric rise an exceptional epochal event. But this week, in every one of Europe’s major countries and from India and Thailand to the US and Argentina, hard-right, anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties like his are also ahead in the opinion polls.In last Saturday’s Czech elections, the rightwing, pro-Putin populist Andrej Babiš toppled prime minister Petr Fiala. National Rally, which has just brought down yet another French prime minister, is leading the polls for both the French presidency and parliament. In Germany, the...

A few months ago, some rogue prosecutors in the Southern District of New York decided that they could turn it into the Sovereign District of New York. These bureaucrats did not understand that they worked for the president, the attorney general, and the deputy attorney general. The kerfuffle arose out of their refusal to drop the suspect indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams after Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, now a federal judge on the 3rd Circuit, had ordered them to do so. These megalomaniacal bureaucrats wrote letters of refusal and resignation, including one from Acting...

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed on Friday that the toxic cough syrups linked to the deaths of children in India have not been distributed in the United States. -snip- Indian authorities recently advised the public to avoid two additional brands of cough syrup after 17 children under the age of five died last month. Officials confirmed the deaths were linked to the Coldrif brand, which contained diethylene glycol at levels nearly 500 times above the permissible limit. The brand was subsequently banned on October 2 following laboratory tests confirming the presence of the toxic chemical. The US...

Charlie Kirk was killed by a left that feels entitled to silence its enemies, by any means necessary.American conservatives have experienced a range of emotions in recent years, starting with amazement – amazement at the hypocrisy of the left. How many times have we heard that US president Donald Trump’s attempts to reform universities threaten academic freedom? Many of the people making this accusation have run professors out of town for dissenting from campus orthodoxies, whether regarding ‘systemic racism’ or climate change. These new-found free-speech crusaders have required faculty to sign loyalty oaths to the cult of diversity. At best,...

The president and his Maga allies have used the rightwing influencer’s killing to justify attacks on critics, experts sayDonald Trump and Maga allies have capitalized on the killing of rightwing influencer Charlie Kirk to expand attacks on liberal groups, donors, Democrats, and others by tarring many critics as the “enemy within” and “radical left” in a move that legal scholars and historians call authoritarian and anti-democratic. Kirk’s killing by a lone gunman spurred Trump and top allies to quickly launch conspiratorial charges against a bevy of political foes and an investigation of billionaire liberal donor George Soros. They also threatened...

An anarchist threat, posted online, targeting federal aircraft with lasers reportedly forced emergency medical helicopters to divert from Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland on Saturday night, putting lives at risk. "Every night for weeks we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us," the Rose City Counter-Info website flyer read. "The only limit power knows is our refusal to submit. "This Saturday, October 11th, you are invited to fight back. All you need is a laser. Leave home – they can see where the laser is coming...

Acute or short-lived pain, despite its bad reputation, is usually a lifesaver. Chronic pain is different; the alarm keeps blaring long after the fire is out, and then the pain itself becomes the problem. Now, research has identified a key to regulating long-term pain states: a group of cells called Y1 receptor (Y1R)-expressing neurons in the brainstem's lateral parabrachial nucleus (lPBN). These neurons are activated during enduring pain states, but they also integrate information about hunger, fear and thirst, allowing for pain signals to be modulated by other brain circuits signaling more urgent needs. They found that Y1R neurons didn't...