Free Republic

Summary Takaichi's ruling party delivers supermajority in Sunday vote Takaichi repeats pledge to suspend food tax Says govt will not issue fresh debt, discuss funding with others Focus on debate over funding, risk of market revolt TOKYO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi renewed a pledge on Monday to cut a sales tax on food, after a historic election win brightened chances for stimulus measures that have rattled financial markets. Takaichi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) romped to victory in Sunday's poll, helped by a pledge to ease household living costs by suspending for two years the...

The “beep test”, a standard aerobic fitness test for prospective firefighters for the last 40 years, discriminates against women and advantages younger candidates, a tribunal has found, following a legal challenge by a prospective recruit. Cork Fire Brigade has been ordered to pay €8,000 ($9,536) in compensation to Terézia Foott, a part-time firefighter aged in her 40s who failed to advance in a November 2023 recruitment competition for a full-time post because she did not make the cut. Ms. Foott, a qualified sports therapist and personal trainer, said she passed every element of the fitness test on the day on...

In an age of rage, it is often difficult to stand out in the mob as so many pander to the perpetually irate. However, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie has found a way to win the race to the bottom. In a posting on Bluesky, Bouie mocked the account of the addiction of the mother of Vice President J.D. Vance, saying that she should have sold her son for drugs. Bouie used Bluesky (the digital safe zone for the viewpoint intolerant on the left) to post one of the most reprehensible attacks on Vance. Bouie wrote that “this is...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts lack jurisdiction to review visa revocations in instances of fraudulent marriages for immigration purposes. This indicates that the Department of Homeland Security possesses ultimate authority in these matters. The unanimous ruling clarified that courts may examine initial visa denials; however, they lack the authority to intervene once the Department of Homeland Security rescinds an approved visa. The decision illustrates the significant authority the DHS wields over visas, potentially influencing the enforcement of immigration laws, including President Trump’s proposals to amend immigration legislation and increase deportations. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by President...

Do any of our FReeper National Guard veterans want to list their service on our military table of honor? If so, please provide the details. Regardless, thank you for your service.I have already gotten started building the Air Force, MARINE table of honor, and the NAVY table of honor.After I build tables for each branch (AF is next), I would like to create a master table of all military willing to share their service, so that all user names would appear in alphabetical order and be easier to reference regardless of branch of military service.Please accept my gratitude for your...

In Portugal, archaeologists uncover mass graves from a medieval clash that rewrote European history. The evidence reveals brutal close-quarters combat and the shocking tactics that secured a nation's survival. The Forgotten Battle That Saved a Kingdom Medieval Dead | S2 E3 | Full Episode | 44:11 Forbidden Mysteries | 5.55K subscribers | 9,611 views | December 21, 2025 YouTube transcript can be processed at reformatted at textformatter.ai.

SUPPLEMENTING OUR BEEF SUPPLY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation temporarily increasing the U.S. tariff-rate quota for lean beef trimmings to boost supply and make ground beef affordable for American consumers despite current supply challenges.The Proclamation permits an additional 80,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings per year from Argentina to be imported tariff-free in four quarterly tranches of 20,000 metric tons each.The Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative, will continue monitoring domestic lean beef supplies and related imports and will advise on any additional actions needed to ensure an adequate domestic supply.RESPONDING...

Mayor Brandon Johnson HUMILIATED after LOSING CONTROL of Chicago Police Mayor Johnson issues EO ordering CPD to arrest ICE agents. CPD and other officials unanimously tell Brandon Johnson GFYS. Transcript linked below video.

CCTV footage of the moment prison guards discovered Jeffrey Epstein’s body in his cell has been unearthed by The Telegraph. Epstein was being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York on sex trafficking charges when he was found unresponsive on Aug 10, 2019. The circumstances of the financier’s suicide and his ties to high-profile public figures, including presidents, media tycoons and the Royal family, have fuelled conspiracy theories that his death may have involved foul play. Until now, no footage of that moment has been published. The FBI says Epstein took his own life and this was corroborated...

$16 billion and still no train and no track 18 years later California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state’s elected Democrat politicians show a strange level of desperation to build any part of California’s boondoggle High-Speed Rail system. $16 billion has already been spent on the High Speed Rail project, originally slated to be completed in 2020. But there is no track and no trains, and a missing $16 billion. A quick refresher on California’s High Speed Rail project: In 2008, California voters approved the Proposition 1A bond initiative, authorizing $9 billion in bond money for the construction of a...

Mayor Brandon Johnson (D-Chicago) issued an executive order directing City Police to monitor ICE enforcement officers and look for potential felonies that could be prosecuted. He justified this order, saying "our state and city are sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. ICE is invading us in an attempt to negate our sovereignty over the areas we rule. We have a right to resist and repel this invasion." Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill) praised Johnson's "aggressive defense of his city from the unwanted ICE invasion. I know the Trump Administration has emphasized that its focus is on so-called 'criminal illegal aliens'--those that supposedly have...

🚨BREAKING: In a bombshell revelation, CBS investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has gone public with explosive allegations: "CBS executives deliberately buried the 'Hunter Biden laptop story' and ordered her to wait until AFTER the 2022 midterms to help the Democratic Party." What's your response to this...??👀 MAKE THIS GO VIRAL ON 𝕏. LET’S GO 👏

...Extreme temperature variations have occurred on Earth during the last few million years because of its extended Ice Ages which included brief warm periods that continue until now. Researchers conduct their studies on climatic patterns to forecast upcoming climate variations that will occur during the next several hundred years. Earth maintains a constant temperature throughout time. The planet follows natural cycles which repeat approximately every 100000 years throughout its history of millions of years. The planet spends most of its time in a Glacial Period which lasts through Ice Ages except for brief warming periods that last 10000 to 15000...

My coworker here in the Austin area went online to start the process of starting an IRA account with Fidelity using is JP Morgan Chase account. He was told by the Fidelity Rep that he couldn't do it online because of a FRAUD issue JP Morgan has experienced. Has anyone read/heard about what has happened with JP Morgan regarding this sort of thing? I recommended he put cash in a stock trading account and hold and wait for an inevitable severe downturn which is coming and then buy dividend-paying stocks and HOLD and reinvest the dividends(he's only 22). Then the...

In 1643, Evangelista Torricelli used a tube of mercury to first measure pressure. In 1897, German mechanical engineer Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine with financial help from the Krupp family, financiers of the Third Reich. Four thousand years ago, the Egyptians invented the pump. Collectively, the above are the bedrock of fracking. In 1949, Haliburton performed the first frack job ever. In 1865, E.A. Roberts received a patent for loading a torpedo with nitroglycerin and dropping it into shallow Pennsylvania wells. Fracking is science, but not a dark one. To date, there have been about 2,000,000 frack jobs in...

🚨 BOOM! This Mexican restaurant is being praised nationwide for providing FREE meals to ICE agents in Arizona "Everyone who works for ICE, all federal agents, can come to Sammy's...here, they will be treated with respect as they deserve." ABSOLUTELY BASED!

Striking San Francisco public school teachers left schools closed and classrooms empty Monday as they demand a deal for higher pay, fully funded healthcare and more staffing. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said he was “disappointed” and “frustrated” that United Educators of San Francisco — which oversees 6,000 unionized public school employees — could not reach an agreement with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) over the weekend, ABC7 News Bay Area reported. Lurie made a plea in a Sunday social media post to delay the strike for three days so about 50,000 students could stay in classrooms while...

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said it was “not realistic” to remove over 25 million people in this country who are undocumented.’#Lawler said, “Look, this is an issue that I’ve been focused on for years. You know, for 40 years, we have not solved our immigration crisis. The American people were rightly outraged by what happened under the Biden administration, where you had over 10.5 million migrants cross our border, most of them illegally. You know, porous Southern border needed to be shut down. President Trump did that. The fact is, we have had nine straight...

VIDEO"Just one more thing." It's probably not at all important but Lt. Columbo does have just one more question for you. Of course, he is not making any accusations. It is just a minor matter that he wants to get cleared up in his mind. Nothing really of concern.

Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has quietly taken a role as a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an institution long entangled with Chinese influence networks, foreign government funding, and open-borders activism. Previously led by former CIA Director William Burns, the think tank has whitewashed his historically awful tenure at DHS: “In that position, he led 260,000 employees to achieve transformational change in a diverse set of missions, including counterterrorism and physical security, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, trade and travel, immigration, and response to natural disasters. He has been lauded for his leadership skills, raising employee morale to...