Free Republic

If you want to weaken gerrymandering, avert government shutdowns, reduce the concentration of power among politicians, blunt the influence of money in elections, loosen the grip of national media narratives, lower the cost of running for office and give voters a stronger sense that their voice matters, there is a single structural reform for that. If Congress won’t revisit the Reapportionment Act of 1929, then the Supreme Court should. That century-old law’s obsolescence is responsible for many of the country’s most persistent frustrations. It gives rise to districts so large they feel abstract; campaigns so expensive they depend heavily on...

In history, authoritarian systems usually fall twice: first psychologically, when fear breaks; then politically, when the men with guns hesitate. Iran’s recent shocks look less like a single crisis than a classic collapse sequence unfolding at speed. The decisive moment in a regime’s collapse is often not the formal end, but the tipping point before it: the moment when the state’s aura of inevitability breaks. Borders may still be guarded, television may still broadcast, officials may still issue decrees. But something more important has changed. The system no longer functions with confidence. That pattern runs through modern history. Regimes die...

With its economy strangled by international sanctions, Iran is turning more than ever to the wealth hidden beneath its soil. And now, a stunning revelation: a colossal gold deposit has been found in the Shadan mine, located in the country’s eastern region. Estimated at over 61 million tons of ore, this find could reshape the balance of the global gold market. Iran’s subsoil is rich in untapped treasure. The nation is already known for its substantial gold resources—around fifteen mines are currently active. For a country hampered by years of economic restrictions, mining has become nothing less than a lifeline....

Heading into this midterm election year, the cost of health care tops the public’s economic anxieties and more than 4 in 10 voters say the issue will have a major impact on their vote, a new KFF Health Tracking poll finds. Voters, including independents, currently trust Democrats more than Republicans to address the cost of health care and most other health care issues, though neither party has an advantage on addressing the overall cost of living, the poll finds. A majority (56%) of the public expect health care costs for their family to become less affordable in the coming year....

The United States literally began with these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” What that actually means, particularly the pursuit of Happiness part, is different for different people. At a minimum, however, we can all agree that Life means, well… life. The above, of course, comes from the Declaration of Independence. But that document doesn’t define the structure of our government, the Constitution does. And from the Constitution we get...

@BBCNewsnight "Men need to be perp-walked in handcuffs to the jail, and until we see that here in this country... we don't have a system of justice that's working." Republican Congressman Thomas Massie on whether survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will see justice done.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – To conclude a lawsuit brought by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, the city of Louisville has agreed to pay $800,000 in attorneys’ fees for violating the First Amendment rights of photographer and blogger Chelsey Nelson. The fee settlement comes after the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky held Louisville accountable for violating Nelson’s freedom to speak messages consistent with her religious beliefs. ADF attorneys representing Nelson and her photography studio filed the lawsuit, Chelsey Nelson Photography v. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, in 2019 because Louisville’s law threatened to compel Nelson to create photographs and blogs...

Former Minnesota Governor and ex-professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is now openly suggesting that President Donald Trump somehow faked the assassination attempt that nearly took his life in Butler, Pennsylvania just so he could look like a hero. In a disgusting display of disrespect toward the victims of the Butler, Pennsylvania tragedy, Ventura appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored to suggest that the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump was nothing more than a scripted wrestling “blade job.” In pro wrestling, a blade job (also known as “blading,” “juicing,” or “getting color”) is the intentional act of a wrestler cutting themselves, usually...

This episode spotlights glaring contradictions between Iran’s words and actions that completely unravel the “not a threat” narrative pushed in Western discourse. By walking through real evidence, official statements and strategic patterns, this breakdown teaches you how to spot propaganda, understand what a “threshold nuclear state” really means and why energy politics and misinformation campaigns are just as critical to the story as missiles and warheads...leaving you questioning not just Iran’s intentions, but who benefits from downplaying them.

No link. Just wondering. Hate to see it disappear.

Stephen Gardner and lawyer Peter Ticktin https://x.com/PeterTicktin , long time friend of President Donald Trump and lawyer to Tina Peters and Patrick Byrne on election integrity. The voter rolls are dirty and the machines have chinese phone parts to affect US elections. Tulsi Gabbard has all the info from Arizona, Georgia, Puerto Rico and more. Trump has been briefed on all of it, it must be used as soon as the Iran war is over to show the American people why we need no machines and clean voter rolls.

Ukrainian drones entered Estonian and Latvian air spaces from Russia overnight, with one hitting infrastructure and another crashing on land, Tallinn and Riga have said. The incident occurred around the same time as Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on the Russian port of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, some 25km (15 miles) away from the Estonian border. The country's security police chief, Margo Palloson, said it was "a Ukrainian drone that deviated from its course, which was possibly affected in Russian airspace." Latvian Prime Minister Edgars Rinkevics also confirmed the drone that hit its territory was Ukrainian. Latvia's Defence...

When the seven P&I clubs belonging to the International Group issued 72-hour cancellation notices for war risk coverage in the Persian Gulf on March 5, they did not just raise costs. They made transit impossible. P&I clubs insure roughly 90 percent of the world’s ocean-going tonnage. Without their coverage, ships cannot sail. Port authorities will not let them dock. Banks will not finance the cargo. Charterers will not book the vessel. The entire system, from loading berth to discharge terminal, is underwritten by a chain of contracts that begins with a club in London, Oslo, or Tokyo. When the clubs...

Stephen Colbert already has a new job lined up for when he ends his 11-year run as host of “The Late Show” in May – the comedian and well-known J.R.R. Tolkien superfan announced he will co-write and develop a new film in the blockbuster “Lord of the Rings” franchise. Colbert joined “LOTR” director Peter Jackson to reveal the news in a video announcement. “I’m pretty happy about it … you know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me,” the late-night host told Jackson, who led the Oscar-winning team behind the nearly $6 billion original...

The race was being watched as a potential bellwether ahead of the November Midterms. Democrat Brian Nathan has pulled off a remarkable upset in the Special Election for Senate District 14, defeating Republican Josie Tomkow. With all precincts reporting, Nathan leads Tomkow by 408 votes, a half percentage point gap that puts the race narrowly outside automatic recount territory. Tomkow conceded defeat at her Ybor City Election Night party, telling supporters, “welcome to my General Election campaign announcement,” a nod to the fact that whoever lost on Tuesday would be back on the ballot again in November for the district’s...

President Trump recently signed an Executive Order that expands U.S. production of glyphosate, a herbicide contained in commercial and domestic weed killers, such as Roundup. Glyphosate has been rigorously tested in more than 2,000 studies, including the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s large Agricultural Health Study, and has been used by farmers and home gardeners for more than 50 years. Yet some environmental advocates and other groups contend it causes cancer, specifically non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. This outcry stems primarily from a 2015 hazard assessment by the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC), a semi-autonomous agency of the World Health Organization, which...

Elon Musk is demanding a Delaware judge step aside from a high-stakes Tesla case after she allegedly “supported” a LinkedIn post mocking a $2 billion verdict against him in a separate California case. Lawyers for Musk and Tesla filed a motion in Delaware’s Court of Chancery seeking the recusal of Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick from overseeing consolidated shareholder lawsuits, arguing her conduct “create[s] a perception of bias” that taints the proceedings. The explosive filing centers on activity tied to McCormick’s LinkedIn account following a federal jury verdict in California that found Musk liable over tweets he posted in 2022...

@ggreenwald The latest major poll for Brazil's October presidential election shows the incumbent, Lula da Silva, now trailing Flavio Bolsonaro, the Rio Senator and son of the now-imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro (within the margin of error but most polls now have similar results):

The numbers crunched by Derek Ryan, founder of Ryan Data and Research, show that nearly 55% of the ballots cast early and on the same day in the recent Democratic primary came from voters 50 and older. By contrast, voters 30 and under accounted for just 14% of the turnout in a primary that nominated 36-year-old James Talarico… But the age gap is even more yawning on the Republican side, according to Ryan's analysis, which uses data from the Texas Secretary of State's Office, the Texas Legislative Council and other sources. Voters 50 and older made up 78% of GOP...

Angelus ad VirginemNicholas Clerk of Oxenford, made a-nyghtes melodie, so swetely that all the chambre rong; and Angelus ad Virginem he song. - Geoffrey Chaucer, The Miller's TaleAudio: Angelus ad Virginem -- Gabriel from Heaven's KingThe Sheet MusicAngelus ad VirginemPhilippe le Chancelier (1160-1236)Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ (1884-1889)Angelus ad virginem Subintrans in conclave, Virginis formidinem Demulcens, inquit: “Ave! Ave regina virginum; Coeli terraeque Dominum Concipies, et paries Intacta salutem hominum; Tu porta coeli facta, Medela criminum.”Gabriel, from heaven’s king Sent to the maiden sweet, Brought to her blissful tiding And fair ‘gan her to greet. "Hail be thou, full of grace...