Free Republic

Liberal Maine Democrats control Maine State Government: Governor, Senate, House. They are poised to impose a 2% tax on the 2,600 tax paying Mainers who earn a million dollars or more per year. The governor said she expects the state will see added income tax revenue of $150 million over the next two years. There is no mention in the news story about the likelihood of any of those 2,600 taxpayers changing their legal residency to income tax free states in response to this new law. Nor is there any discussion regarding the possibility of future legislation lowering the tax...

Residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains experienced a magnitude 4.6 earthquake early Thursday morning, the strongest since the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.Residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains felt every second of a magnitude 4.6 earthquake early Thursday morning, marking the strongest quake in the region since the 1989 Loma Prieta disaster. "I did go outside expecting to see the Earth open, and it was that intense," said Keith Swick, a mountain resident. Advertisement Magnitude 4.9 earthquake near Boulder Creek wakes Central Coast residentsMagnitude 4.6 earthquake near Boulder Creek wakes Central Coast residents Home cameras captured the moment the world...

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: Some may find the video disturbing. Animal control officers in Seaside are looking for a husky involved in a vicious dog attack that was caught on camera. Animal control officers in Seaside are looking for a husky involved in a vicious dog attack that was caught on camera. In the video, a small Yorkie is seen being bitten and grabbed by a husky. Officials want to find the husky before it attacks again. Sophie, a 3-year-old Yorkie, is now missing after being snatched up by a large husky that was on the loose in a Seaside neighborhood....

Explanation: How can we see what is invisible? Black holes are not easy to see in the dark cosmic night, but astronomers can find them by analyzing their gravitational effects on matter, light and spacetime. The featured image shows an illustration that combines a simulation of a black hole binary system in its final "death-dance" with an astrophotography image of the Tarantula Nebula in the background. Even though black holes don't emit light, they distort the path of light rays, acting like a gravitational lens. As a result, the nebula appears extremely distorted, forming Einstein rings and multiple images. Tarantula...

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg said NATO may need to be replaced, arguing the organization has shown itself to be "cowards" and ineffective during the conflict with Iran. In an appearance Wednesday on "Hannity," Kellogg blasted NATO allies over their failure to address the conflict in Iran. He suggested the United States may benefit from different defensive partners. "NATO's turn[ing] [out] to be cowards," Kellogg said. "Maybe we need to have a new NATO, a new defensive establishment." He pointed to Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that any party may leave NATO one year after providing...

Former Chicago Bulls guard Jaden Ivey says his wife isn’t speaking to him after the team cut him amid fallout from anti-LGBTQ+ comments he made on an Instagram live stream. “That’s why my wife in here, and she not even texting me,” Ivey, 24, revealed on another Instagram live stream on Tuesday, March 31, “Those who are around me, those who are my family members betraying [me] because of what I spoke. The truth. Betraying me. Saying that I’m losing my mind. Saying that I’m crazy. … Those are my own household. All because of the Gospel. All because I...

Jaheim Alford told his passengers, “I am going to kill everyone in the car” as he shifted his car into sport mode and accelerated through a red light into a York city intersection the night of Sept. 8, 2024, according to police. He smashed his red Hyundai sedan into a blue Honda Odyssey carrying two people — one of whom was pregnant, and later lost the child, police said. He was smoking marijuana before he got behind the wheel, police said. Alford, 24, of Latta, South Carolina, was originally arrested on 16 charges, led by three counts of attempted homicide....

Another American plane involved in the war in Iran crashed in the Persian Gulf today, according to US officials cited by The New York Times. According to the Times, the A-10 Warthog went down near the Strait of Hormuz at around the same time that an F-15E was shot down over Iran. The report says the pilot from the A-10 was safely rescued.

The submarine, launched by the Confederate Army in the last full year of the Civil War, made history when it became the first combat submarine to ever sink a warship. But on the same night when the H.L. Hunley’s torpedo sent the USS Housatonic, along with two of its officers and three of its enlisted crew, to a watery grave in the depths of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, the Hunley itself—along with its eight-man crew—was also claimed by the waves. snip In a study published in PLOS One in 2017, a team of researchers affiliated with Duke University announced...

The Iranians managed to shoot down an American fighter jet today (Friday), when one of the two crew members on the plane was rescued and a search is underway for the other. This event, perhaps the biggest drama since the beginning of the war, took place this morning (Friday) in southwestern Iran. Plane F-15 who is on a mission is hit by Iranian anti-aircraft fire and crashes. The two crew members, the pilot and the navigator, manage to safely abandon the plane. The pilot was rescued, but the US fears the possibility of the navigator being captured. Sources familiar with...

Reports suggest that Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was secretly airlifted to Moscow for surgery following severe injuries sustained in the initial wave of airstrikes. The health and whereabouts of Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, have become a central mystery in the ongoing war. Intelligence reports from both the U.S. and Israel indicate that the 56-year-old successor was "very seriously wounded" during the opening wave of strikes on February 28, which targeted the compound housing his father’s residence. While Iranian state media continues to issue written statements in his name, he has not made a single public...

Europe could have used the "Lion's Roar" campaign to reset its domestic policy regarding radicalization; instead, they chose to prioritize internal "harmony" with an increasingly hostile demographic. President Donald Trump, in his characteristically blunt fashion, offered European leaders a strategic out: a chance to align with a hardline U.S.-Israeli axis to secure Middle Eastern hegemony and, crucially, to use that external momentum to address the rapid Islamization occurring within their own borders. But Europe didn’t just miss the boat, they actively pushed it away. Faced with a choice between long-term civilizational security and short-term domestic quiet, the leadership of France...

Los Angeles Fire Department crews are responding to a hazmat situation involving a shipping container releasing chemicals in Wilmington Friday morning. The incident was reported in the 900 block of Harry Bridges Boulevard around 9:10 a.m. “Preliminary report of a 40-foot shipping container on a trailer off-gassing,” the department said in a news alert. “Hazmat units are confirming the type of product per placards and air monitoring.” Crews established a perimeter at the shipping facility where the container is located.

Former CNN anchor and independent journalist Don Lemon’s time away from network television has exacerbated his own delusions: he could not manage a news show for CNN but now believes becoming president is possible. Before doing that, though, he would need a sign from his god who is apparently a woman. Lemon made an appearance on “Pod Save America” alongside host Alex Wagner where he, unsurprisingly, couldn’t help but talk about President Donald Trump, leading Lemon to opine about his own presidential aspirations.

BREAKING: It was just revealed that the Chinese suspects who tried detonating an IED at a US Air Force Base were BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENS of ILLEGAL ALIENS Omg. This is EXACTLY what Justice Sam Alito tried telling everyone at the Supreme Court! STRIKE DOWN BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP for illegals. Per Daily Wire: The two's parents were arrested on March 18 for illegal entry, they tried getting asylum in 1993, but ultimately got a deportation order in 1998. It was the CHILDREN of Qiu Qin Zou and Jia Zhang Zheng who tried bombing MacDill Air Force Base Visitor’s Center in Tampa FL. Justice...

An American fighter pilot has been rescued by US forces after being shot down behind enemy lines, two US officials have confirmed. A second crew member remains missing after an American F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Southern Iran, CBS News reported. Donald Trump has been briefed on the rescue mission, the White House confirmed. It comes as Iranian state media urged civilians to capture the pilots, with a 'reward' offered by the Islamic regime. Footage has emerged of tribesman shooting at what appears to be an Air Force HC-130J Combat King II, a specialized search and rescue plane....

The so-called experts didn’t just miss the mark on March jobs numbers; they got steamrolled by reality. Economists predicted a weak 59,000 jobs. The actual number came in at a stunning 178,000. Talk about getting it completely wrong. And it’s the latest reminder that the same crowd that spent months warning about economic doom under President Donald Trump still doesn’t understand what’s actually happening on the ground. Even CNN couldn’t deny that this was huge. Unemployment dipped again, falling from 4.4% to 4.3%. Even more telling, the rate dropped across multiple groups, including women, black Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and veterans....

State media in Iran have published images showing Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters entering Khuzestan, provoking anger and revulsion among many Iranians, who say these proxy forces are repeatedly brought into the country to kill protesters and defend the ruling system. On Tuesday, Masoud Pezeshkian, the president of the ruling establishment, wrote in a post on X/Twitter, a platform that has been blocked for ordinary Iranians for years, thanking the “Muslim people of Iraq” for standing by the people of Iran in what he called this “unjust” war. He also wrote, “I warmly shake the hands of the people, officials,...

In a recent and viral announcement, Joe Kent resigned as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. In the letter, he accused the Trump administration of bowing to Israeli lobby pressure on Iran. He also stated that Iran (a nation that regularly proclaims “death to America”) “posed no imminent threat to our nation.” AdvertisementThe reactions were mixed: A sharp rebuke from the White House, praise from Marjorie Taylor Greene, and a podcast appearance with Tucker Carlson. In the end, though, this move by Kent was not principled or patriotic. Instead, this move displayed a tried-and-true career-advancement strategy of so-called Republicans: betray...

There’s no doubt that oil prices have gone up since the war began. However, there’s also no doubt that they’re nowhere near as high as they’ve been in the not-so-distant past, including just a few short years ago during Joe Biden’s presidency. In California, as well, the prices far exceed those of any other state. ChatGPT collated the prices for me:AdvertisementHow in the heck did California’s fuel prices get so high?AdvertisementAn essay at the Marin Independent Journal provides some insight for its local readers, leading with the equivalent of “it’s mostly Trump’s fault.” However, what struck me about the essay...