Free Republic

An unnamed photo editor at a major news outlet believes it is "dangerous" for the media to highlight the historic photo of former President Trump standing tall after the assignation attempt Saturday, calling it "free PR" for the Trump campaign, according to a report. An Axios media trend assessment on Tuesday argued that the "overuse" of the iconic image can "pose risks," citing unnamed photographers who reportedly told the outlet that promoting the viral photos could be a form of "photoganda" because the Trump campaign will use them to "further their agenda, despite the photographers' intent of capturing a news...

.....After decades of being patched up on the cheap, London’s rental homes are in a state of comical disrepair. In one flat, my housemate and I spent an entire night trying to stop our sink from flooding the kitchen, which it tended to do whenever we used the washing machine thanks to a creative plumbing job the landlord had done while cramming another bedroom into the flat. I’m 28 now, and there’s a Section 21 notice in my inbox. My current landlord has decided to raise the rent beyond what I can afford, having already bumped it up last year...

CNN senior political commentator Van Jones warned that TV personality and model Amber Rose’s address to the Republican National Convention in support of former President Trump was the "most dangerous speech" for the Democratic Party. The pundit expressed trepidation over the fact that Rose, a person of color with mainstream fame, spoke at the RNC, noting that she’s appealing to people in liberal circles who may be frustrated with Democratic policies. "That was probably the most dangerous speech for the Democratic coalition," Jones said about Rose’s speech while covering the first night of the convention in Milwaukee....... "I realize Donald...

In the frantic moments after a would-be assassin fired shots at Donald Trump, news organizations reported cautiously about what had occurred. As with many breaking stories, it wasn’t immediately clear what was unfolding. But being right rather than first with the news wasn’t good enough for many readers. With the benefit of ample hindsight, some critics on social media trashed the early, uncertain reports as inadequate or worse....... There was notably little criticism of the print editions of leading newspapers on Sunday. The main headlines of these editions accurately framed the story in just a few words. The Washington Post’s...

Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of Donald Trump's classified documents case may backfire on the former president, according to a slew of legal experts, potentially landing the presumptive Republican nominee in another court where he'd be less likely to win on the merits. In her decision Monday, Cannon opined that the appointment of special counsel Jack Smith by the Department of Justice violated the Constitution. But she had long frustrated prosecutors and legal observers before this week for repeatedly delaying the trial and appearing partial towards Trump's team, culminating now in a ruling that one expert called "jurisprudential garbage." The decision,...

If you secretly admire Trump, now’s the time to admit it. Shock your coworkers. Scandalise the wife. Today a grace period descends over politics in which even people who’ve labelled him Hitler and called for him to be removed must grit their teeth and say, “I-guess-he’s-kind-of-admirable.” Try awesome. Like Moby Dick or the Terminator, Trump is a force of nature. Think of all this man has gone through in eight years. He’s been been impeached (twice), accused of rape, arrested, condemned in court, labelled a traitor, survived Covid and now shot in the ear. Who can doubt he will win...

Law enforcement officials quickly launched an investigation into the Saturday night shooting of Donald Trump as an assassination attempt, offering few details. That did not stop a torrent of unsubstantiated theories from flooding social media and other channels shortly after the event. Some accounts from the left of the political spectrum immediately claimed that the shooting was a “false flag” operation perpetrated by Trump’s own supporters. Some on the far right accused President Biden of ordering a hit on a political rival...... But far-right channels on encrypted platforms were abuzz with a mixture of shock, rage and conspiracy theories. Triumphant...

Idon’t care what you think of his politics—former President Donald Trump just struck one of the most iconic poses in U.S. history. His fist-raised salute of defiance is surely enough to win him re-election to the White House. Especially if the American people have to choose between a doddering incumbent and the man who got to his feet seconds after an assassination attempt and punched the air with blood trickling down his face.

Democrats are finally beginning to admit that the declining Joe Biden is a problem. If they think he is their only one, or even their biggest, they are as confused as their leader. That’s the glaring yet unspoken truth amid the battle over Mr. Biden’s future. The left and the media are keeping this discussion focused on individual prospective candidates and the liberal base. Who gives them the best shot in November? Is Mr. Biden too big a liability? Will black voters defect if the party kicks Kamala Harris to the curb? How does California’s Gavin Newsom rate next to...

KEY POINTS The Bank Secrecy Act has been around since the Nixon administration. The law was designed to stop criminal enterprises, large and small. Unless you're breaking the law, you have nothing to worry about. It's your money, and generally, you have the right to withdraw as much -- or as little -- as you desire from your bank account. However, under a law called the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), banks must report any deposits or withdrawals of $10,000 or more. Here, we'll cover why the BSA exists and if it's anything you need to be concerned about....... During the...

This month marks 11 years of working in New York's service industry. It's changed a lot. As an Irish lad, I grew up on Cheers and in my first gig in New York, I found my solace at Molly Pitcher's Ale House—a popular joint where the regulars could have been characters on that show. Now, Molly Pitcher's is no more, Cheers is no more, and the characters are no more. In my first gig, a month in, I had learned that the bar corner seat was Rosie's, an 80-something iconic regular. When Rosie entered, she imperiously claimed her throne and...

Curtis Murrah says he’d been a loyal customer with USAA for 28 years — until his wife rang him up one day saying she couldn’t make their mortgage payment because there wasn’t any money in their account. Murrah, who’s based in Georgia, says he took a closer look at his accounts and discovered someone was making deposits in and out of his accounts. “It was like they were playing mind games,” he told News 4 San Antonio. “They would deposit $9,800 then turn right around and withdraw $9,800. They would deposit $4,000, turn right around and withdrew it.” Murrah contacted...

After the US Supreme Court curtailed the powers of federal agencies in two cases last week, progressive critics predictably complained that the decisions favored “big business,” “corporate interests” and “the wealthy and powerful.” That gloss overlooked the reality that people with little wealth or power frequently are forced to contend with overweening bureaucrats who invent their own authority and play by their own rules. In the more consequential case, the court repudiated the Chevron doctrine, which required that judges defer to a federal agency’s “permissible” interpretation of an “ambiguous” statute. The majority said that rule, which the court established in...

Challengers to federal rules covering a range of industries including mining and farming got a fresh shot on Tuesday at rolling back regulations as the U.S. Supreme Court applied a new standard for reviewing the power of federal agencies. Nine lower-court rulings were vacated by the Supreme Court and sent back to be reconsidered in light of Friday's decision reversing the decades-old Chevron doctrine that said judges should defer to agencies to interpret laws they administer. The cases were the first of what is expected to be a wave of rulings reassessing the power of federal regulators, who make rules...

Imagine that Congress passes a statute authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to require permits whenever material alterations are made to a “major stationary source” of air pollution (or new ones are created). So far, so good. Now imagine that a power plant near your home has three smokestacks. Does that count as one “major stationary source” or three? And what makes a stationary source “major”? Beyond these substantive questions is a procedural one: Who should resolve these matters? Unelected federal judges, who may have no particular expertise in environmental law, or the federal agency staffed with scientific and policy experts...

Alaska’s Supreme Court justices on Friday reversed a Superior Court ruling that struck down key components of the state’s correspondence school program. Nearly 23,000 homeschool students may continue to use their allotments of state education money to pay for private school tuition until the Anchorage Superior Court reconsiders the case. The Supreme Court made its decision a day after oral arguments in an appeal of the ruling in State of Alaska, Department of Education and Early Development v. Alexander, in which plaintiffs argued that it is unconstitutional for public education money to be spent on private school tuition. The justices...

Like everyone else, I’ve been reading about the abysmal prospects for our country after the presidential debate, and there’s one recurring theme: the problem is the candidates. This is simple and convenient, but I think it is wrong. One guy is clearly incompetent and the other guy is a jerk, but in any republic or democracy, the candidates reflect things about who we are as a nation. You have to ask yourself how, in a population of over 300 million people, these two guys are the best we can do. Of course, the easy conclusion is that we have been...

For years, conservatives have railed against what they call the “administrative state” and denounced regulations. But let’s be clear. When they speak of the “administrative state,” they’re talking about agencies tasked with protecting the public from corporations that seek profits at the expense of the health, safety, and pocketbooks of average Americans. Regulations are the means by which agencies translate broad legal mandates into practical guardrails. Substitute the word “protection” for “regulation” and you get a more accurate picture of who has benefited — consumers, workers, and average people needing clean air and clean water..... Make no mistake: Consumers, workers,...

The fallout from last week’s presidential debate has thrust the Democratic Party into a spiraling crisis. Yet many in the party view the current reckoning as sadly inevitable—the product of years of defensive refusal by the president and his protective inner circle to acknowledge the decline in Biden’s public presentation that has long been obvious to voters. Now, insiders admit, the party is reaping the consequences of its long failure to confront an issue that was only ever fated to get worse. “This was all predictable, and it pisses me off that everyone is acting shocked now,” one longtime Democratic...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate took on their party and stopped a total abortion ban from passing in their state last year. In return, they lost their jobs. Voters removed Sens. Sandy Senn, Penry Gustafson and Katrina Shealy from office during sparsely turned out primaries in June, and by doing so completely vacated the Republican wing of the five-member “Sister Senators," a female contingent that included two Democrats and was joined in their opposition to the abortion ban....... “Women, somebody else is going to have to stand up. Somebody else is...