Free Republic

Sports betting has become so ubiquitous and so massive in the US that it can be difficult to remember that at the start of 2018, it was only legal in four states, and only in Nevada could you bet on individual games.All that changed in May of that year, when the Supreme Court stuck down the federal law that barred most forms of sports gambling. Since then, the legal sports gambling industry has spread to 38 states plus Washington, DC, with revenues of nearly $14 billion in 2024, much of which has come from burgeoning and highly addictive mobile apps...

The headlines say federal troops are coming to Illinois. ICE is calling for National Guard protection. Governor J.B. Pritzker is howling about federal overreach, while the media frames it as another Trump stunt.But let’s be clear: the issue at hand is much larger than safeguarding ICE personnel.This is power politics, pure and simple.Let me explain: urban areas like Chicago are mini-states with single-party rule under Democrats; Chicago hasn’t had a Republican mayor in nearly a hundred years. The urban areas are then power bases for Democrats to have undue influence over the rest of a given state. Illinois is actually...

A Laois Fine Gael Councillor said he believed people who spoiled their vote shouldn’t be entitled to State benefits. Councillor John King made the comment at the Laois Presidential Election Count Center in Scoil Chríost Rí (Christ the King School) in Portlaoise this morning. In Laois, more than one in ten voters chose to spoil their vote rather than select any of the candidates on the paper. In total there were 4,156 spoiled votes, representing 14.6 percent of the Laois vote. “I am disappointed with the spoiled votes because our forefathers fought to get those votes,” Councillor King said in...

Candidate for the Democrat nomination for US Senator from Maine Graham Platner's Nazi SS tattoo has stirred up some controversy. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), who has endorsed Platner, urged voters "to not fall victim to those who would unfairly judge this solid fighter for socialism. Remember, Nazi is short for National Socialist German Workers' Party. While Hitler took a wrong turn when he reneged on his deal with Stalin to carve up the smaller nations of eastern Europe between them during World War II, his previous program of socialist investment in German factories helped rescue the country from the Great...

The government shutdown will end soon. How do I know? Because whatever political advantage Democrats had a few weeks ago by “standing strong!” and “confronting Trump!” is quickly evaporating. When the polls flip, so will the party that has lost its way. Voters have a way of sniffing out the truth. They are beginning to understand that Democrats are rudderless, and are voting to keep the government closed out of confusion, not conviction. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and their colleagues claim they desperately want Obamacare premium subsidies extended, but they have...

President Trump’s upcoming trip to Asia is a reminder that his trade philosophy has not changed: America’s economic strength is the foundation of its global influence. His mission is to turn high-stakes negotiations into opportunities for American workers and investors. But as trade tensions with China ignite again, business leaders should prepare for volatility and opportunity to rise in tandem.The White House hopes to announce a series of trade agreements during his trip to Malaysia, Korea, and Japan. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has indicated that the administration expects to sign multiple deals during the Asia swing. The agreements would...

Washington describes first day of negotiations between Scott Bessent and He Lifeng as ‘very constructive’The US and China kicked off high-stakes trade talks in Malaysia on Saturday that Washington described as “very constructive” ahead of Donald Trump’s trip to Asia for a summit with Xi Jinping.Following weeks of mounting tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng held negotiations in Kuala Lumpur that will help shape the outcome of the summit on Thursday.This month Beijing announced sweeping export controls on rare earths, prompting Trump to threaten an extra 100 per cent...

Here’s the audio of President Trump discussing his trip to Asia to attend the ASEAN and APEC summits in Malaysia and South Korea respectively. President Trump is anticipated to meet with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping in South Korea and there is a rumor that Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un might meet somewhere. President Trump even made mention that if media put out the word, he would be willing to meet with Chairman Kim at the DMZ while he is in South Korea. Audio Below:

Exactly two hundred years ago, on October 25th, 1825, Johann Strauss II, also known as the Waltz King, was born in Vienna. Waltz King or even Emperor: he truly deserves this title, as he is one of those very rare classical composers—like Mozart or Beethoven, but who else? –whose music almost everyone has heard at least a few bars of, even if they can’t always identify it. We owe him such immortal waltz masterpieces as The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods, and Viennese Blood, which are still universally known today as embodying the Viennese way of life throughout...

By Dr. John BergsmaSeveral years ago, an experiment was done in which three American families were taken to a remote part of the Midwest and left to survive with few belongings and 19th century technology (horse-drawn plows, etc.) for a year. As I recall, two families were able to persevere through the year without being rescued, and at the end of it, they returned to their twentieth-century lives, with video games, TV, etc. When interviewed a year after the end of the experiment, almost to a person the family members agreed that the year "in the past" had been very...

A federal judge overturned a former Biden-era rule that protected transgender healthcare under anti-discrimination measures. On Wednesday, Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled in favor of a coalition of 15 Republican-led states. The complaint was filed regarding Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which the Biden administration interpreted to include provisions for transgender-identifying people to receive so-called “gender-affirming care.” The provision added gender identity to Title IX’s definition of discrimination “on the basis of sex,” which previously included discrimination based on sex characteristics and reproductive function. This rule prevented...

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Friday dodged a question from reporters about the potential for ground troops on Venezuelan soil, as tensions escalate amid the Trump administration’s war on drugs in the Caribbean. While he said he “would not now or ever get into any detailed discussion” about potential military options, Miller called Venezuela a “central hub” for the trafficking of narcotics, weapons and humans. The White House aide called the drug cartels linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which are designated terrorist organizations, the “ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.” When asked directly about the...

VENEZUELAN tyrant Nicolas Maduro is not merely complicit in organised crime — he leads it. From generals to judges, the very top of Venezuela’s political and military elite are deeply embedded in a powerful, sprawling cocaine trafficking network, experts say. Cartel de los Soles, translated as Cartel of The Suns, isn’t a cartel in the traditional sense. It’s a web of Venezuelan military, intelligence and political elites accused of taxing, protecting and moving cocaine with state resources. With parts of Maduro’s government deeply enmeshed in the drug trade, the lines between state power and organised crime have been blurred. Dr...

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville caused outrage and renewed partisan tensions this week after remarks in which he described a “fantasy” scenario of public humiliation for supporters of President Donald Trump and institutions that align with him. The comments came during an appearance on the podcast Politics War Room with co-host Al Hunt, and quickly drew attention for their provocative imagery and historical reference points. Carville accused Trump of being a “tin-pot tyrant” with “no use for democracy” and warned that companies, universities and law firms who “bend the knee” to his agenda will face more than political consequences —...

The former president and CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce stole more than $200,000 from the organization and ripped off Crime Stoppers, taking $30,000 set aside to help with unsolved crimes involving children, federal prosecutors said. Former Minneapolis Chamber CEO faces wire, bank fraud charges The allegations: Federal prosecutors said Jonathan Weinhagen stole more than $200,000 from the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and made off with $30,000 that the organization had donated to help with unsolved cases involving children who were shot. According to prosecutors, Weinhagen embezzled the money over a span of nearly six years, from...

For all the unity that the Democratic Party projects, there’s actually a lot of drama behind the scenes, and it’s nice to see the details finally come out. According to a new tell-all on last year’s campaign, Joe Biden spent the last weeks of his re-election meltdown dodging phone calls—not from reporters or donors, but from Barack Obama himself. For two full weeks before he finally bailed out last July, Biden reportedly refused to take his old boss’s calls. And get this: even after he quit, he gave Obama the cold shoulder for another month. It’s a far cry from...

A student at Empire Beauty School is suing the school’s company, claiming it did nothing to stop racial harassment by a fellow student with Tourette’s Syndrome. Yamonnie Pressley, who is Black, says her classmate’s behavior made her unable to sit through classroom exercises at the beauty school’s Lebanon branch and says the outbursts made her feel threatened. Tourette Syndrome is a nervous system disorder that involves repetitive involuntary “tics” such as making sudden movements or sounds and can include blurting out offensive language.

[H/T Red Badger]Since most portions of the post, including the video, contain profanity, I excerpted just the summary at the bottom of the page out of respect for FR's policy regarding profanity. Basically, the theory is the big insurance companies are threatening not to pay for Dem campaigns next year so Dems shutdown the government during which time the insurance companies get paid while those they insure (e.g., military) do not. Below is an AI analysis of the theory.SNIPSummary: The speaker claims the government shutdown isn’t really about political infighting or healthcare policy—it’s about protecting major insurance companies (like UnitedHealthcare,...

For those who refuse to believe: That Bill Gates & The big pharma complex is not out to kill people through vaccines, or at best are more than willing to destroy peoples healthy lives in order to make them customers of their products for most of their lives, here is an inconvenient study that was done by someone who is pro vaccinees and did this study to shut up those who have concerns about vaccines. After completing his study, he refused to publish his findings. For those who refuse to believe Find out why: For those who refuse to believe:...

Former Vice President Kamala Harris has hinted she may make another bid for the White House. Harris, who lost out to Donald Trump last November, told the BBC that she would 'possibly' be commander-in-chief one day. The Democrat said: 'I am not done, I've not decided yet what I will do in the future beyond what I am doing right now.' Harris also dismissed polls that put her as an outsider for the White House in 2028 behind former WWE wrestler turned actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. She added: 'I think there are all kinds of polls that will tell...