Free Republic

What the Welfare State UnleashedFrom dignity to dependence to thievery.America’s debate over poverty has undergone a remarkable—and troubling—transformation. Two centuries ago, the central challenge was persuading needy people to accept public assistance. Today, the challenge is preventing people from fraudulently claiming benefits to which they were never entitled.That trajectory tells us something profound about the nation’s changing moral culture.Alexis de Tocqueville noticed something remarkable when he traveled through America in the early 1830s. Unlike Europe, where poverty often produced permanent dependence upon the state or aristocratic patrons, Americans possessed an almost universal determination to remain independent. They formed voluntary associations...

Audio recordings that former President Joe Biden fought for years to keep private have now been released. The roughly 70 hours of audio recordings, shared with CBS News, were cited in a 2024 special counsel's report, which said Biden kept volumes of notes at his home that included classified information. Biden, now 83, is at one point in the recordings heard telling his ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer: "Some of this may be classified … So, be careful. I'm not sure ... It's not marked classified but —" At another point in the recordings he says again: "The next thing I have...

First lady Melania Trump and son Barron are the latest targets of Iran’s sick anti-US propaganda. A new video out of Iran is encouraging supporters of the Islamic regime to assassinate President Trump’s wife. Entitled “How to Kill Melania Trump,” the video shows images of the first lady in the motorcade and in some locations around New York City, even naming some of the designer stores that she shops. The shopping excursions could be “suitable for operations by global freedom fighters,” the video noted. It also suggested using a nerve agent to poison any clothes the first lady might purchase.

Few recent elections have attracted more interest than Thomas Massie’s Republican primary loss to Ed Gallrein in Kentucky’s Fourth District. While the media focused on the feud between Massie and President Trump, they missed a more interesting story in the voting patterns, which revealed a sharp generational divide within the conservative coalition. If this growing divide is ignored, it could endanger the conservative movement—and even land Trump officials behind bars. In the final vote, Gallrein won by 10 points. Yet polling by Quantus Insights showed Massie carried every age cohort under 55 by double digits and held a vast 56-point...

Thirty-two college students have failed part of their history midterm exam after falling for an AI-cheat trap when they blindly copying ChatGPT-generated answers without bothering to proofread thoroughly. Jason Gibson, a history professor at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, secretly embedded a hidden prompt in the exam instructions using a white font, invisible to students but readable by AI chatbots if the instructions were copied and pasted. The prompt instructed the AI to randomly insert absurd nonsense about Madagascar into every response. Instead of answering questions about the Industrial Revolution, dozens of students unknowingly turned in essays declaring that "Madagascar...

What does it take to reveal a contradiction? In at least one case, it is a deformed raccoon sashaying across Seattle, delightfully unbothered. Unless you make your home somewhere deep under a rock, you know I am referring to Jimothy—who else?—the feral hunchback whose viral sightings have injected a ray of sunshine into the land of perpetual drizzle, and also across the globe. What is it about him? Or her? Or them? There may be multiple Jimothys, after all: other little trash pandas likely afflicted with short spine syndrome, giving her/him/them the rounded back that has captured the attention and...

Most men don't think much about aging until something forces the issue: a lift that used to feel easy, stairs that leave you winded, or a waistline that expanded despite no real change in habits. Fortunately, the research on longevity and healthy aging is largely consistent on what to do. Resistance training, plainly lifting weights regularly, is one of the most well-supported interventions available for extending both lifespan and health span, the stretch of years you spend actually capable of doing the things you want to do. This is not a supplement pitch or a training trend. It is the...

Until now, the deceitful health bureaucrat’s reputation has remained intact despite damning revelations about his attempted cover-up of the origins of COVID-19, suspected involvement in outsourcing dangerous research on bat viruses to China and mishandling of the pandemic. But, days before Fauci has to again face his nemesis, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, on Capitol Hill, his excruciatingly embarrassing diary entries have turned him into a laughingstock. In a bombshell data dump Saturday, Paul, chairman of the Senate’s oversight committee, which will grill Fauci under oath on Wednesday, released what he said was Fauci’s diary from December 2019 through December 2022....

The Democratic Socialists of America mean to end the United States — and if you don't believe me, take a look at what DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer had to say about it this weekend. Romer appeared on Fox News Sunday opposite Shannon Bream, where she seemed happy to explain her party platform to end the Founders' 250-year-old experiment in liberty, federalism, and self-governance. "We're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform," Bream said, "and I want to ask you to just give me sort of a true/false on these."...

A Chinese national has been indicted in New Hampshire for his role in a fraudulent gift card operation. Ren Jinbin, 38, of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire announced on July 23. According to the indictment, Ren was accused of engaging in the fraudulent scheme from September 2021 to January 2024. During that time, Ren and several other Chinese nationals in the United States and elsewhere allegedly obtained gift cards that had been fraudulently acquired through romance fraud, elder fraud, hacking, and other...

A California man who went missing in the Pacific Ocean for over a month has been found alive drifting off Hawaii. Kai Sato, 39, left Catalina Island on June 7 but two weeks later the mast on his sailboat snapped, he ran out of gas and his phone died, leaving him floating helplessly outside of shipping lanes. He said he was left crying for days as he gave up and felt “like a sitting duck” as the waves pushed him further from any chance of being rescued. He told Hawaii News Now: “I cried for a whole week, just drifting...

Since Waymo arrived on the public stage as Google’s self-titled autonomous-driving project almost 20 years ago, the promise that self-driving cars would dramatically curtail crashes has remained just that. A handful of companies operate autonomous ride-hailing services in some cities (San Francisco is downright lousy with autonomous cars), but high-profile mishaps show how elusive real progress is. Yet Waymo may be heading in the right direction, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The nonprofit organization backed by the insurance industry and known for very thorough crash tests recently took a look at Waymo’s safety record. In a study...

Californians are pumping the brakes on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars, with a new statewide poll showing the governor’s marquee climate policy has become a political headache. The survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found nearly two-thirds of Californians oppose Newsom’s 2035 gas-car mandate. Among likely voters, 65% said they oppose the plan, while just 34% support it. Opposition is even stronger among infrequent voters, signaling the governor faces broad resistance as he pushes one of his most aggressive climate initiatives.

Narrative violation. WSJ today.

GOP lawmakers can’t agree on spending reform, so they keep funding the tax-eating nonprofits.House Republicans left for summer recess on Thursday after passing a budget bill with as much substance as a beach novel. The tenuous GOP majority looks to have given up on serious spending and tax reforms this year.Many Republicans seem content serving as tax collectors for Democrats’ welfare state and the bureaucrats whose jobs depend on it. They might consider that the rise of the socialist left coincided with an eruption in federal spending that began during the pandemic, with gobs of money flowing to state and...

A YouGov survey for Sky News and The Times puts Labour level with Reform, while Andy Burnham has ruled out scrapping stamp duty at the budget. Watch Sky's Sam Coates' analysis. [Video] LABOUR 22% Reform 22% Conservatives 21% Greens 13% Libdems 11%

or years, the propaganda press assured Americans that Anthony Fauci was an honest broker and beyond any criticism. Those who did criticize him were raked over the coals for being “deranged” and “dishonest.” Questions about Fauci’s role in the deadly pandemic amounted to disseminating “misinformation.” But new diary entries from Fauci himself reveal that many of the so-called “journalists” reporting on Fauci were nothing more than highly paid propagandists. Fauci appears to have relished the tongue baths so much that he memorialized them in his diary, dutifully reporting which propagandists praised him, protected him, and apparently sought his approval.

Toronto police are investigating after two locations of Jewish-owned Kiva’s bagel bar were targeted in separate incidents Sunday morning, including one where a window was struck by gunfire. In multiple posts to social media, police say officers were first called to the Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue West area at around 8 a.m. after reports that a window at a Jewish-owned bakery had been struck by gunfire. Investigators located evidence of a firearm discharge at the scene. However, no injuries were reported. Roughly 20 minutes later, officers responded to another location of the “same Jewish owned bakery chain” near...

Just days before the Iran war began, the United States’ top military official, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, expressed misgivings.One of Caine’s biggest concerns? How war with Iran could further deplete munitions stockpiles that had already been reduced by helping Ukraine and Israel in their wars in recent years, The Washington Post and CNN reported.That warning is looking increasingly prescient and pivotal, as the Trump administration struggles to wind down a war that has lasted much longer than it previewed.But the administration is struggling to reconcile exactly where things stand on the all-important issue of munitions.

Explanation: What created this huge space bubble? Blown by the wind from a star, this tantalizing, head-like apparition is cataloged as NGC 7635, but known simply as the Bubble Nebula. Taken from Krakow, Poland, the featured view utilizes a long exposure to reveal the intricate details of this cosmic bubble and its environment. Although it looks delicate, the 10 light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at work. Seen here right of the Bubble's center, a bright hot star is embedded in the nebula's reflecting dust. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from the star, which likely has...