Free Republic

Americans have run their credit cards to the limit. Now they’ve turned to buy-now-pay-later plans to buy gas and groceries. This is yet more evidence that American consumers are broke, stressed, and buried in debt as inflation steals their purchasing power. Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platforms allow users to purchase items by paying several smaller installments (typically around 4) over time. Block operates the Afterpay BNPL platform. The system was originally set up to provide short-term financing for bigger purchases. But according to company data, usage is expanding into everyday spending categories. The average customer used Afterpay to purchase gas 3.6 times...

Video Transcript Summary Stephen Kuhn, a Bronze Star recipient, combat veteran (Iraq), co-founder of Germany's AfD party, intelligence/politics insider who lived in 10 countries, with a Ukrainian partner, and author of five books on citizens reclaiming government power. The interview is optimistic yet urgent, framing a global struggle between sovereignists/nationalists and globalists/technocrats. Kuhn emphasizes facts, triangulation of information, long-term strategic thinking, and practical local action over emotional narratives. Kuhn expresses deep faith in America as the greatest nation due to its moral and spiritual origins (belief in higher power, Enlightenment/Magna Carta roots, Judeo-Christian values). Americans are the top per-capita donors...

Recent U.S. intelligence reports raised alarms about Israel spying on American officials to gain insight into the Trump administration’s approach to the Iran War, according to separate reports from the New York Times and NBC News. The Times reported Saturday that U.S. intelligence offices discern an elevated threat of Israeli espionage operations targeting Steve Witkoff, the top American negotiator with Iran, Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for policy, and Michael DiMino, one of Colby’s top deputies. Colby and DiMino are widely perceived to be part of an America First faction that is skeptical of military intervention in...

Billionaire progressive activist and California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer recently remarked: "Health care companies only care about one thing: profits. Single-payer now." This is the same Tom Steyer who opposed single-payer when he ran for president in 2020. "Bernie Sanders was right," he says. "Boy, was I wrong." He still cannot explain how to pay for it. Can anyone? Single-payer health care has been the progressive left's signature domestic demand for four decades. It has generated presidential campaigns, mass rallies, congressional cosponsors, and an inexhaustible supply of Twitter righteousness. What it has never generated once is a workable legislative proposal....

Thomas Massie isn’t acting like a defeated man. After losing the most expensive primary race in American history last month, largely thanks to pro-Israel figures and groups spending millions to defeat him (according to the Federal Election Commission, Massie received donations from 1,119 individuals actually living in Kentucky, compared to only 98 for his opponent Ed Gallrein), Massie announced just days later, “I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race.” He explained, “This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office.”...

Recent polling, conducted by the venerable Harris organization for Harvard University, reveals a stark and troubling fault line across American public opinion. In the Israel-Hamas conflict, more than seven in 10 Americans stand with Israel, with the strongest backing coming from older citizens and Republican voters. Yet among Democrats, support for Hamas reaches a disturbing 36 percent. For young adults aged 18 to 24, 54% actually side with Hamas over Israel. This is not a minor disagreement. It represents a serious national emergency. Nearly four in 10 Democrats aligning with a terrorist group against the Middle East’s only thriving democracy...

If a former CIA agent’s report is accurate, Iran may find itself making a decision the U.S. was faced with making in 1945. The agent, Larry Johnson, revealed that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister personally delivered a disturbing, secret message to Secretary of State Mark Rubio claiming that Iran does possess a nuclear weapon. He also reports Tehran intends to demonstrate soon this capability to the world community. The immediate question obviously is just how Iran intends to demonstrate it?In 1945, during World War II, the U.S. had to decide how to demonstrate to Japan it possessed an atomic weapon, developed under...

I would have missed this if it weren’t for my brilliant friend Brian Sullivan. Brian texted me the Spencer Pratt video below with the comment: “This is great.” Fact-check: True. Indeed, the ad conveys something like a timeless truth. Whether Pratt wins or loses his race for mayor of Los Angeles, we’ll always have Paris…I mean the Pratt — the rejection of leftist bromides and the aversion to the media diet depicted in the video. As my friend says, this is great.

(In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House's 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries' armed forces together) At a time when the American public is expressing unprecedented levels of distrust in the Israeli government, Congress just proposed tying the U.S. to the Israeli military more than ever before. Buried in the House's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released on Tuesday, is section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more...

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has likely eliminated another of the prime butchers behind the Oct. 7 atrocities. And IDF also continues to eliminate Hezbollah targets on its other front.Hezbollah kills Israelis on a weekly basis and continues to devastate Israeli towns, some of which lost or suffered damage to most of their buildings in missile strikes since Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas jihadis also continue to conduct terrorist activities both in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (what they deceptively call the “West Bank”). And of course, many Oct. 7 terrorists came home to Gaza to receive a hero’s welcome and huge...

Sen. Cory Booker told CNN on Sunday that Democrats need to stop focusing on party mechanics and start rebuilding trust with voters, arguing that the Democratic "party apparatus" has failed to meet the moment and "desperately needs new leadership." JAKE TAPPER, CNN: I guess my question is, how can the Democratic Party hope to win tomorrow if it won't even honestly confront the problems of yesterday? SEN. CORY BOOKER: Well, first of all, I have had frustrations, as you and I were talking off camera, with the Democratic Party for a long time. And the DNC has got to...

Six states are holding primaries today (May 19), including Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. A good deal of focus will be on the Kentucky 4th District House race, where incumbent Republican Thomas Massie faces a challenge from the Trump-endorsed Ed Gallrein. We'll definitely be keeping tabs on that one, as well as the GOP House and Senate primaries in the Bluegrass State. (Trump endorsed Rep. Andy Barr (KY-06) in that latter race. Will he be the GOP nominee to replace the outgoing Mitch McConnell?) SEE: 'Get This Loser Out': Trump Now Demanding Massie Primary Defeat Judge With Notorious...

But if Massie loses, it's not just the end of his career. (He told Mangu-Ward that if GOP primary voters send him packing, he's going back to his plow and "nobody will ever hear from me again"). It would also effectively be the end of what used to be called the Tea Party, a loose conglomeration of Republican representatives and senators who rode a wave of anti-Barack Obama and anti-George W. Bush sentiment to office in the early 2010s. Although some said that the tea in Tea Party stood for the "taxed-enough already," the rallying cry of the early Tea...

The Atlantic magazine recently announced the People’s Choice for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. “Trump Voters Like Marco Rubio More and More (And J.D. Vance Less and Less)” the headline proclaimed, a ruling that deserves respect considering that this is the magazine that has spent the past decade ferociously denouncing Trump as a “racist,” “fascist kleptocrat,” “warped,” “corrupted,” an “authoritarian,” a “demagogue,” a “xenophobe” and a “liar.” The piece was written by Sarah Longwell, whose career as a Republican consists almost entirely of loathing Trump, calling him an “incomprehensible lunatic,” “an insane madman,” “corrupt” and an “authoritarian.” So you can...

Donald Trump was for the Iran war before he was against it. His latest post on social media about the conflict indicated that he is once more calling off a sweeping military action, this time at the behest of his Gulf allies who are apparently quaking at the thought of a renewed conflict. Trump’s initial sentence was quite a mouthful: I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold...

President Donald Trump has called for the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the state of Maryland for sending out mail-in ballots to individuals of the incorrect political party ahead of the state’s closed primary elections. #BREAKING: Trump demands DOJ probe into Maryland voting, allegedly 500,000 illegal mail-in ballots were issued.— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) May 18, 2026After the mistake, the Maryland Board of Elections made the decision to mail out additional correct ballots despite having no ability to indicate which ballots were originally sent out incorrectly. Elections officials have not publicly released a plan for how to invalidate...

On a scorching hot afternoon in Havana, the line outside the state bakery stretches down the block. Inside, the shelves are almost bare. A man in a faded baseball cap tells me he’s been waiting for two hours for bread that might not arrive. Across the street, a gleaming black SUV with tinted windows idles outside a hotel mostly reserved for foreigners. Its lobby is stocked with imported whiskey; the air-conditioning is turned up to Arctic levels. This is not an unusual juxtaposition in today’s Cuba. I walk through Central Havana with Antonio Rodríguez, a 60-year-old university history teacher who...

This is a good interview with DOJ whistleblower Johnathon Gross discussing the failure of the DOJ to seriously address corruption and lawfare within its ranks. The video is over two hours long and covers a lot of material, but in summary, Gross was hired in the early months of President Trump's second term as part of a team tasked with addressing civil right violations relating to J6 and lawfare in general. He ended up being pushed out of his position for being too persistent in his efforts for accountability.

Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert endorsed Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie Friday despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to primary challenge him. Trump launched an aggressive effort to unseat Massie by endorsing his opponent, Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, and has harshly criticized Massie over his criticisms of the Iran war, his opposition of the big, beautiful bill and his push to release the files surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Four days before Massie’s primary, Boebert said on X that Massie “loves America and is fighting to save it,” while also praising Trump in the same statement. “Below is my friend Thomas Massie. He...

Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves called off a planned special session to redraw the state’s Supreme Court districts, even as he said Mississippi could still revisit its congressional map amid a broader GOP redistricting push in the South. Reeves announced Wednesday that he would cancel the special session scheduled to begin next week, which had been called to address Mississippi Supreme Court districts. Several Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump had pushed Reeves to add congressional redistricting to the agenda as part of a broader effort to create safer Republican seats amid a nationwide redistricting battle. Reeves said the cancellation...