Free Republic

Zohran Mamdani tells Fox News that if he is elected, New Yorkers should expect to give up 52% of their paychecks

Former President Barack Obama endorsed former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s governor race, releasing a pair of ads attacking Republicans. The contest between Spanberger, a former CIA officer, and current Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is one of only two governor races in the U.S. this November. The contests are viewed as political bellwethers ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. "Virginia's elections are some of the most important in the country this year. We know Republicans will keep attacking abortion rights and the rights of women. That’s why having the right governor matters, and I’m proud to endorse Abigail...

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a $16.6 billion budget plan for 2026 on Thursday, relying on a number of new or increased taxes on corporations to close a $1.2 billion shortfall while protecting the city from funding cuts by the Trump administration. "We are asking large corporations and big tech companies that have made trillions of dollars to pitch in a little bit more," Johnson said. f Johnson's budget plan is approved, social media companies could find themselves on the hook for a new tax next year. Chicago would be the first city to impose such a tax, and it's just...

The Associated Press recently dug up some “experts” to diss President Donald Trump as being too nasty for the Nobel Peace Prize, since he -- gasp -- "does not believe in climate change." But one of the recipients of the elitist honors in the Nobel Economics Prize is is a climate-obsessed economist who advocates a distorted concept of “creative destruction” through green policies to wreck the fossil fuel industry. Climate organization Heatmap reported October 13 that Nobel winner Philippe Aghion views “carbon taxes” as just one instrument in a tool box to force the economy into a climate-friendlier era. Heatmap...

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: Traditionalist Redemptorists issue open letter to ‘repudiate the Synodal Church’The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer accused the modern hierarchy of betraying the Faith, invoking anathema and pledging to offer the Traditional Mass and spiritual help ‘so long as there is but one soul that asks.’The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer, a traditionalist Catholic congregation based on Papa Stronsay in Scotland, have issued an open letter “to the Catholic Bishops, Priests, Religious and Faithful” following their General Chapter.The community – often called the “Transalpine Redemptorists” – was founded by Fr. Michael Mary Sim in 1987 under...

One of President Trump’s biggest political adversaries stunned the political world after revealing that he won an unusual amount of money gambling in Las Vegas last year. As The New York Times reported, Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker released his 2024 tax returns on Wednesday as rumors circulate about him as a 2028 presidential candidate.The returns revealed that Pritzker and his wife reported $10.7 million in adjusted gross income. But the biggest shock was the fact that he won $1.4 million playing blackjack in Las Vegas in just one trip. Such an amount is surprising, especially considering Pritzker is not...

Regional bank stocks tumbled on Thursday after Zions Bancorp said it would write off fraudulent loans made to two borrowers, adding to investors’ fears about lending standards and stress in credit markets. Zions Bancorp (ZION) on Thursday said it had recently identified “what it believes to be apparent misrepresentations and contractual defaults” by two borrowers. As a result, it plans to write off $50 million of the $60 million outstanding on the affected loans. Shares of Zions dropped 13% on Thursday, leading regional banks lower. The KBW Regional Banking Index fell 6%. The recent bankruptcies of two companies in the...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration wants to revive the corporate head tax on big companies and increasing other taxes to plug the city’s projected budget gap of more than a billion dollars next year. The mayor unveiled his 2026 budget plan to the Chicago City Council Thursday morning. The so-called Protecting Chicago Budget, which is subject to council approval, includes the following: -a corporate head tax for the top 3 percent of businesses in Chicago. -increased taxes on big tech companies. -a new tax on large social media companies like Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), YouTube and TikTok. -a...

Prosecutors have charged two children, ages 9 and 10, with attempted murder and rape among other charges after saying a 5-year-old was assaulted in a field in the Cleveland area. According to NBC affiliate WKYC, it happened on Sept. 13 when Cleveland officers responded to a home where a caller reported she was babysitting a 5-year-old girl, but that the girl had gone missing. Advertisement A report from WKYC states the 5-year-old was found in a field near the home and was taken to the hospital with bruising and swelling injuries. The police report states a witness told an officer...

When victimhood is fake, even a moral society is within its bounds to reject it.In one of last week’s columns, I said something that generated a little bit of feedback; namely, I said that modern victimhood culture leads to the end of civilization because its proponents blow up the rules by which civilization is agreed on.And without dragging the reader of this column through that previous argument, I’ll explain the point this way — people whose goal is to achieve their own victimhood will act in highly destructive and irrational ways. Or at least, irrational in any other respect...

Whirlpool CEO Marc Bitzer said President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have created a “level playing field” for expanding U.S. manufacturing and incentivizing companies to invest in domestic production. “What the tariff policy does [is] it makes a business case, an economic business case, just much more attractive,” Bitzer told Fox News in an Oct. 15 interview. His remarks came as Whirlpool announced a $300 million investment in its U.S. laundry manufacturing facilities, a move the company described as “one in a series of strategic commitments to grow its American manufacturing footprint.” Bitzer told Fox News that without Trump’s tariff measures,...

USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim rejected the Trump administration’s education compact, which would offer priority funding to universities following the president’s conservative vision. The USC Academic Senate strongly opposed the compact, with faculty calling it “probably unconstitutional” and “antithetical to principles of academic freedom.” The University of Southern California on Thursday said that it had rejected the controversial education compact the Trump administration offered it and eight other schools. USC interim President Beong-Soo Kim said in a statement that he had sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education turning down the Trump offer, which would give priority research...

TYLER, Texas (AP) — Celia Monreal worries every day about the cartilage loss in her husband’s knees. Not just because it’s hard for her to see him in pain but also because she knows soon their health care costs could skyrocket. Monreal, 47, and her husband, Jorge, 57, rely on the Affordable Care Act marketplace for health coverage. If Congress doesn’t extend certain ACA tax credits set to expire at the end of the year, their fully subsidized plan will increase in cost, putting it out of reach. Without insurance, they won’t be able to afford his expected knee replacement...

It seems like former Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), is very sensitive when it comes to people questioning her about what happened at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Pelosi proved that in spades when a reporter for LindellTV, Alison Steinberg, asked her if she was concerned that the new January 6th committee would "find her liable for that day." "Why did you refuse the National Guard on Jan. 6?" Steinberg asked. That's when Pelosi went berserk. Pelosi snapped at Steinberg, stabbing her finger at her and ranting, "Shut up! I did NOT refuse the National...

~Favorite I or You Songs~ I walk the line – Johnny Cash*Video*You can’t Always get what you want – Rolling Stones *Video*

Each case will be judged on its own merits, but this is part of a pattern of selective prosecution.President Donald Trump has embarked on a campaign of prosecuting political foes, from ex-FBI director James Comey to New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). On Thursday night, his former national security adviser, John Bolton, became the third high-profile antagonist to face charges in as many weeks. What’s different now is that the Justice Department’s charges, and the evidence underlying them, appear stronger than in previous cases.A grand jury in Maryland indicted Bolton on 18 counts of transmitting and retaining national defense...

Jesus’s Ancestors By beginning his Gospel with a genealogy, Matthew declared that the Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, raised by Joseph, and who worked as a craftsman in Nazareth was the descendant of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Matthew sought to convince his readers that Jesus, who had no home, no fortune, and only an unimpressive group of followers, was the royal King in the line of David whose kingdom would never end. But honestly, if that was all that Matthew was trying to accomplish, he could have gone about recording Jesus’s...

Democrats want guarantees that President Trump will not continue to claw back spending, ignoring any agreement they strike. But he has promised to keep defying Congress.Long before Republicans and Democrats reached the stalemate that has shut down the government, President Trump made it clear that he was willing to ignore Congress’s constitutional power to allocate federal spending.His Department of Government Efficiency took a hacksaw to the federal bureaucracy with little consultation and no sign-off by the Republican-controlled Congress. He pushed through legislation to officially claw back billions of dollars lawmakers had appropriated, a rare move that he and his advisers,...

The most recent clash between Gov. Gavin Newsom and the White House centered around whether live ammunition should be allowed to fly over a major California freeway.

As police departments around the country report a surge in 3D-printed firearms turning up at crime scenes, gun safety advocates and law enforcement officials are warning that a new generation of untraceable weapons could soon eclipse the “ghost guns” that have already flooded U.S. streets.At a summit in New York City on Thursday, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety will bring together policymakers, academics, 3D-printing industry leaders and law enforcement officials to confront the growing challenge. They fear that as the printers become cheaper and more sophisticated — and blueprints for gun parts spread rapidly online — the U.S....