Free Republic

Every few years, Washington rediscovers fraud. A viral clip of someone misusing food stamps. A headline about child care providers in Minnesota. A politician promising to crack down on “fraud and abuse.” The ritual is familiar. And the response is always the same: more paperwork, more surveillance, more hoops to jump through for people who are already struggling.

Investing.com - U.S. stocks were a sea of red on Monday as the escalating conflict in the Middle East pushed oil prices to $100 a barrel, raising fears that higher energy costs could weigh on the economy. At 09:43 ET (13:43 GMT), the benchmark S&P 500 index slid 1.2% to 6,655.57 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite slumped 1.3% to 22,103.06 points, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.4% to 46,846.08 points.

The FBI is expanding its criminal probe into suspected election irregularities, secretly obtaining a large tranche of voting records from Arizona’s largest county with a recent grand jury subpoena, multiple people familiar with the probe told Just the News. The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the grand jury probe, said FBI agents are receiving gigabytes of electronic election data from Maricopa County, about a month after the bureau first disclosed an investigation into election irregularities by raiding a warehouse near Atlanta and seizing ballots from the 2020 election conducted in Fulton County,...

Ukraine has received only about 600 advanced interceptor missiles for the MIM-104 Patriot air defense system during the entire course of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian officials told The New York Times. Dmytro Lytvyn, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Kyiv had received roughly that number of interceptor missiles over four years of war. Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western partners to provide additional Patriot systems and interceptor missiles as Russia continues to launch large-scale missile strikes targeting cities and critical infrastructure. The Patriot system remains among the few air defense platforms capable of reliably intercepting advanced ballistic missiles, including...

Government efforts to protect Muslims from abuse will in "no way" restrict people's freedom to criticise Islam, the communities secretary has said. Steve Reed told the BBC he believes a new definition of "anti-Muslim hostility" included in the government's social cohesion plan finds the right balance. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last year raised concerns that a new definition risked creating a "chilling effect" on freedom of expression. The social cohesion plan, which will be published on Monday, also includes measures aimed at promoting integration and tackling "extremist influence" in institutions, such as charities and universities. An independent...

Large language models aren’t good at lots of stuff, like counting fingers or suggesting pizza recipes. But one thing that “AI” is quite good at is analyzing massive amounts of data and finding possible connections that aren’t immediately obvious. That makes it perfect for unmasking anonymous internet posts, according to a new research paper. Researchers at ETH Zurich and the MATS research fellowship associated with Berkeley ran a program [PDF], collecting data from sources with generally anonymous usernames, like Reddit. By collecting users’ posts across related but distinct movie subreddits, then feeding the LLM data from a Netflix data leak,...

The mask has not just slipped; the high-voltage exposure of leaked diplomatic cables and thousands of internal emails has vaporized it. The Iran Experts Initiative (IEI) stands exposed as a Tehran-directed influence network, a psychological strike force embedded within the very heart of Western decision-making. This is no academic debate. This is a documented, top-down subversion operation launched by the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) - a known front for the regime’s intelligence and propaganda apparatus.This cell was never about "cultural exchange"; it was a cold-blooded tactical maneuver designed to inject the Islamic Republic’s talking...

The Brighter Horizons Academy in North Texas Was Established and Run by Figures Involved with Convicted Hamas Operatives and Designated Terror Organizations; Uses Curricula Developed In-House that Teaches Children to Hate. Government bodies must investigate Texas K-12 schools established and run by persons and organizations with direct ties to designated terrorist organizations, urge leading reformist Muslim voices. Following the Middle East Forum’s January report on Islamist efforts to secure public funding in Texas, a new investigation indicates that a private Islamist-run school and radical curricula provider in the Dallas suburbs, previously established and staffed by Hamas-aligned operatives, are today teaching...

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (WPVI) -- Six people were arrested Saturday in New York City following a dueling protest outside Gracie Mansion, and federal authorities have launched a terrorism investigation. Two of those arrested are from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and remain in custody. On Sunday, FBI agents searched the homes of 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi in Newtown and 18-year-old Emir Balat in Langhorne. The searches came after the NYPD said at least one improvised explosive device was deployed during the protest, with additional devices now under investigation. "Nothing like this happens around here. So it's pretty scary," Newtown neighbor Pamela Pulsinelli said.

New Article: Building an OSINT Pipeline to Cut Through the Iranian Conflict Noise. SPOILER ALERT: We're winning. I just published a long-form analysis on the Iran conflict and the strategic dynamics around it. Sorry for the Substack-only publication; the article itself was far too long and complex in formatting to publish with 𝕏 tooling. (Feedback to the 𝕏 team - if you can just make full Markdown capability, I would be thrilled.) Before anything else: I'm only a civilian data analyst, not a military officer or intelligence professional. This piece is the result of two weeks of intensive work where...

President Trump’s unconstitutional and unjust war against Iran is setting back his “affordability” agenda. The war has caused a big rise in gasoline prices. Among the related concerns is the hindering of the movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the only available passage for ships to transport oil from the Persian Gulf The increased costs will do more than raise prices at the pump. An increase in gas prices brings increased transportation costs that will be passed along to consumers. Prices of a variety of goods, including food, will increase. No wonder Energy Secretary Chris Wright, White House...

On March 6, 2026, Mark Levin described what may be an unprecedented moment in American history: a major political party actively undermining the military and the commander-in-chief during the onset of a military operation. With Operation Epic Fury targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, ballistic missile programs, and the entire Islamist regime, Levin and guest Lee Smith laid out a damning case — with quotes, polling data, and roughly 50 years of Iranians killing Americans — that the Democrats’ war is focused on political power, not American interests. Unprecedented Political Sabotage? The Democrat Party’s immediate response to Operation Epic Fury is unique:...

Sam Harris sits quietly as Bill Maher calls out the NYT for pushing readers toward an opinion on the “Iran War.” “The second day of the war… The New York Times’ headline was ‘US troops die.’ That was what they led with.” “But then, in a country where I’ve read 80 to 90% of the people are thrilled that the Ayatollah is gone, what picture did they put? Picture of people mourning the Ayatollah…” “I can’t believe that somebody at the desk didn’t get, ‘I’ve got a great picture of people dancing in the streets.’ Yeah, we’re gonna go with...

President Trump revealed Monday that he will confer with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about when to end the military campaign against Iran, suggesting the decision would be “mutual” between the US and its Middle Eastern ally. “I think it’s mutual… a little bit,” Trump told The Times of Israel in a phone interview, adding that he and Netanyahu have “been talking.” “I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,” the president added. Trump previously suggested that the war against Iran could last approximately four weeks, but other members of his administration...

As someone who looks at culture and politics regularly, I often write about problems and, on occasion, proffer solutions. Sometimes the solutions are relatively straightforward and obvious, like suggesting to the GOP that if they don’t pass the SAVE Act and bring about something resembling honest elections, they’re going to get their asses handed to them in November. Others, I recognize, are far more complex than my 30,000-foot take on the issue. This is most certainly the case when I suggested the government should get out of the wealth redistribution business. Knowing that there are thousands of programs handing out...

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How Central Banks Plan to Control You | Catherine Fitts Interesting talk about money and power. Would like freeper input. What is to stop people from banding together and forming private bank entities like the Chinese do on chinatowns?

Archaeologists recently unearthed a gold-laden burial in Panama — an epic discovery that dates back over 1,000 years. The Ministry of Culture of Panama announced the discovery, made at the El Caño archaeological site in Panama's Coclé Province. The tomb contained several gold and metal artifacts, including chest plates, ear ornaments and bracelets, as well as "finely crafted ceramics." The tomb is called Tomb 3.

If there is one lesson the 20th century should have taught us, it is that governments make poor grocers. The image of Boris Yeltsin standing in a Texas supermarket in 1989, stunned into silence by the abundance of a randomly selected American grocery store, remains one of the most powerful indictments of central planning ever recorded. Yet, in New York City, history is being ignored. After just a month, the mayor is already involved in a controversy surrounding his refusal to clear homeless encampments, with tragic results. Despite these early failures, the enthusiasm among young people and Democrats is still...

Canada is set to pass a grim milestone in its medically-assisted suicide program with a total of 100,000 citizens projected to be euthanized by the government before its 10th anniversary on June 17. The Great White North’s MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) program will soon cross the sickly six-figure threshold, according to The National Post. Ottawa’s most recent data shows 15,767 Canadians were euthanized by the state in 2024 — 5.1% of all deaths in the nation that year. Rachel Fournier, who has requested medical assistance in dying, looks out a window at a palliative care center. About 45 Canucks...