Free Republic

Jason Collier, a special education teacher in Virginia, often needs to wait until payday to fill up the gas tank of his car — and in the meantime hopes he doesn’t run out. “Money is tight when you’re a teacher,” Collier, 46, said. Now he’s afraid that the U.S. Department of Education will soon garnish up to 15% of his wages because he’s behind on his student debt payments. Collier said he hasn’t been able to meet his monthly bill for years, while juggling the expenses of raising two children and medical expenses from a cancer diagnosis. If his paycheck...

Even before President Trump was re-elected, the Heritage Foundation, best known for Project 2025, set out to destroy pro-Palestinian activism in the United States.In late April, the Heritage Foundation dispatched a team to Israel to meet with power players in Israeli politics, including the country’s foreign and defense secretaries and the U.S. ambassador, Mike Huckabee.The conservative Washington-based think tank is best known for spearheading Project 2025, a proposed blueprint for President Trump’s second term that called for reshaping the federal government and an extreme expansion of presidential power.Now the Heritage contingent was in Israel, in part, to discuss another contentious...

Space junk in Earth's orbit may increase because of the effects of the same heat-trapping gases that are polluting the air and warming the planet, according to a recent study. What's happening? A team led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers determined that, with Earth's warming, space debris could accumulate enough to reduce the low Earth orbit area available for satellites by between a third and 82% by the year 2100, as the Associated Press detailed. The reason for this, per the study published in Nature Sustainability in March, is that climatic changes high above ground could reduce the effectiveness...

Trump’s presidential blitz is realizing the dreams of conservative intellectuals in the Reagan-Bush era.Imagine a populist president who set out to create, “in the first weeks of his administration, a radically different perception of the presidency.” He could use “far-reaching executive orders” to “give various constituencies throughout the country the immediate conviction that this president, for a change, looks out for them.” The burst of presidential edicts would serve visceral as much as practical purposes: “The nation as a whole needs to be jarred by this newcomer’s determination to protect the country’s vital interests, perhaps by ordering, on national security...

MAGA supporters have erupted in fury over Saturday Night Live's latest political sketch featuring a deeply personal dig at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The controversial segment, which aired this weekend, featured former cast member Cecily Strong returning as Judge Jeanine Pirro alongside Colin Jost portraying Hegseth as her 'drinking buddy.' In the sketch, Strong repeatedly made light of alleged alcohol issues that the real-life Defense Secretary has vehemently denied. 'I love Pete Hegseth. He's my old drinking buddy,' Strong's Pirro said. When Jost then entered the scene as Hegseth, Pirro was so surprised that she sprayed wine all over his...

In the run-up to the vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., knew her party had a problem — and its name was John Fetterman. Fetterman, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, was open to confirming President Donald Trump’s embattled pick, according to two people familiar with his thinking. Murray wanted to speak with her colleague one-on-one. So she reached out to set up a time. But Fetterman refused, as the two people familiar with the episode told NBC News. “He figured that she wanted to yell at him about it,” one person familiar with the...

Democrats love to pretend the morons who take to the streets and encourage others to punch people are somehow an organic movement, but of course, they're not. We're finding out that nine times out of 10, someone somewhere is paying them to do it. And that someone is usually a Soros. Twitchy favorite @DataRepublican put together a thread on the violent, so-called anti-Nazi protest in New York City yesterday, and gosh, golly, gee, once again this was not organic at all. Duh.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting which is comprised of the National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) are budgeted to receive $535 million from the federal government for FY2025. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has recommended this funding be cut. Paula Kerger, CEO, of PBS and Katherine Maher, CEO of NPR appeared at the House of Representatives DOGE subcommittee to testify against budget cuts. Subcommittee Chair Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) said "folks in my district listen to podcasts and internet based news. At the same time, NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical, left-wing echo...

Pinching pennies and landing a crew of astronauts on the Moon before a geopolitical rivalry aren't two endeavors that go hand-in-hand. The Trump administration released NASA's proposed 2026 discretionary budget last week. The federal space agency would see a $6 billion cut if implemented as written, roughly a 24% decrease compared to 2025. However, the White House is confusingly still committed to beating China to the lunar surface despite shuttering all the projects working towards that goal. The proposed 2026 budget has a 10% increase for human space exploration, but the $7 billion allocated won't be used for the significant...

In 2020, one hitherto unknown report accurately predicted what was to follow Biden’s election. It also laid out a plan to preserve democracy in an uncertain future. Weeks before the 2020 election, a secret 87-page document outlined in matter-of-fact language the threat posed by Donald Trump’s still-to-come campaign of election denial. The private paper — the existence of which has not been reported before — forecast with chilling confidence the likelihood of violence during the presidential handover and proposed a far-reaching set of political reforms to thwart Trumpism in the future. Americans remember that dark winter well. But the impetus...

The left has curiously continued its efforts to destroy President Donald J. Trump even though that stance played a large role in returning him to the White House. But that strategy did not play out too well for former White House press secretary Jen Psaki when she mocked Trump for not striking any trade deals. “It’s been more than a month, if you can believe it, since Donald Trump announced his sweeping and pretty ridiculous tariffs. But Mr. Art Of The Deal, as he calls himself, has not yet struck a single trade deal. Not a single one. With any...

Robert Francis Prevost, who was selected as the Catholic Church’s first American pope Thursday and took the name Leo XIV, has a family history that some were celebrating as uniquely diverse, with one genealogist claiming he has ties to “free people of color” in New Orleans. Key Facts The maternal side of Pope Leo XIV’s family can be traced back to at least the 1840s among “free people of color” in New Orleans, according to Jari C. Honora, a genealogist with the Historic New Orleans Collection, a research center documenting the city’s history. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., who represents New...

At least 10 Les Miserables cast members are expected to boycott a June 11 performance of the musical at the Kennedy Center, which President Donald Trump is planning to attend. Following the controversies at the once-prestigious Washington, D.C. performing arts center since Trump appointed himself chairman, CNN reports that the musical’s cast was given the choice of whether or not to perform that night, with the performance doubling as a big-ticket fundraiser for the Kennedy Center.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved. Before long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why “everybody is mad at me,” “why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do” and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred. As the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers...

Oil producing countries are bracing for a bumpy ride this year, with a precipitous drop in prices to the lowest levels in four years seen as the initial, alarming sign of looming turmoil. A price drop benefits any country seeking to cut its fuel bill. But in oil producing nations, lower prices can feed economic troubles, and sometimes political unrest, as governments slash spending. Analysts who had already been predicting lower oil prices because of softening demand amid increased global production said the possibility of a tariff trade war and the overall climate of uncertainty could well deepen producers’ woes....

This CNN segment was actually going quite well until CNN's Isobel Yeung sat down with a member of the Sinaloa Cartel and treated him as some sort of a victim of Donald Trump's anti-cartel policies. You gotta see this: VIDEO AT LINK.................. According to the Trump administration, you are a terrorists, I mean the cartels have been labeled a foreign terrorist organization. What do you make of that? What's your message to Donald Trump if he's watching this? Yes, these are the questions CNN asked to a flippin' Sinaloa Cartel member who makes fentanyl for consumers in the U.S. Bro's...

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “kowtowing” to President Donald Trump had been disappointing. Host Jake Tapper said, “Is Secretary Rubio able to do the two main jobs there?” Warner said, “I don’t know how anybody could do these two big jobs, and they’re frankly very different. One is actually trying to diplomatically work with friends and adversaries around the world. And unfortunately, the number of adversaries has gone up dramatically as Trump’s approach has been so awful to our allies. The other are our national security adviser...

House Republicans are planning to include several of President Trump’s campaign promises in the first draft of the bill, which they hope to release soon.It was easy to miss, but last weekend President Trump floated a fundamental rewrite of the American tax code. In a social media post, and again in remarks to reporters, Mr. Trump suggested the United States could stop taxing income under $200,000 and instead rely on revenue from his extensive tariffs. “It’ll take a little while before we do that, but we’re going to be cutting taxes, and it’s possible we’ll do a complete tax cut,”...

At a White House event marking the National Day of Prayer, President Donald Trump stood flanked by religious leaders of every stripe—Christian pastors, Jewish rabbis, Hindu swamis, Buddhist monks, and Muslim imams. But in typical Trump fashion, what began as a carefully choreographed moment of spiritual unity soon veered into campaign trail chaos, as he launched into an unscripted anecdote involving imams, death, and what he mistakenly called “38 virgins.” “I love them. They were great,” Trump said, recalling a meeting with Muslim leaders in Michigan during the 2024 campaign. “They said, ‘We don’t want to die.’ I said, ‘You...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday attempted to trash President Trump over bogus poll numbers. The fake news media attacked President Trump this week with reports claiming he has the lowest 100 day approval rating in 80 years. “Twice as many people said President Trump deserves a grade of F rather than an A for how he’s handled his first 100 days in office, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll,” NPR reported. “Forty-five percent said Trump deserves the failing mark, compared to 23% who would pass him with flying colors. It’s understandable that partisans would have strongly polarized...