Free Republic

Longtime New Yorkers fume after being hit with massive pied-à-terre tax bills: ‘Is this a witch hunt?’ New Yorkers were seething Tuesday after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration alerted them they’d be on the hook for the state’s new pied-à-terre tax — which was explicitly sold as a levy targeting wealthy owners of luxury second homes. Longtime residents — some who have called the Big Apple home for decades and own a single abode in the city — told The Post they were shocked to get hit with five-figure tax bills they believe were mistakenly mailed out, and are now being...

M y first car was a 1980 Volkswagen Rabbit. It was a hand-me-down from my mom, manual transmission. You never forget popping clutches, stalling left and right. The car was, let’s say, semi-end-of-life when I got it. It was a classic Volkswagen that, mechanically, ran forever. But it had roll-up windows and the handles had popped off. God knows where the real handles were. We had these vise grips I would use to roll down my window, then hand it to my high school buddies in the back so they could do the same. I’ve got 4,000 memories from inside...

As if Monday's revelations about Fauci were not bad enough, there's this: '[Fauci] got vaccinated at a very, very public press conference in [December] of 2020 … and then five months later, he had - and this is the first time that he knew this, from the diary - he had a pulmonary infarction, which is one of the adverse events NIH, CDC, and FDA said are expected from the vaccine. Even worse, Fauci's diary shows he was aware that the risk of death from Covid was about 0.2% in the general population (meaning it was even lower among the...

@RandPaul If Anthony Fauci lies before Congress on Wednesday, as he did in previous hearings, his preemptive pardon won’t cover him.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, congressional colleagues and world leaders Tuesday will say their final goodbye to Sen. Lindsey Graham, the influential and colorful foreign policy hawk whose sudden death this month at age 71 stunned Washington and reverberated in capitals around the globe. Two days of ceremonies and funeral services will begin around 10 a.m. ET Tuesday when Graham’s casket arrives at the Capitol for a brief ceremony in the rotunda that will include nods to both his military service and his more than three decades in Congress. The ceremony will be private but livestreamed. From there, Graham’s casket...

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OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a 27-year-old Ecuadorian woman as she prepared to board a flight from Denver to Oakland on July 20, according to ICE and a friend who witnessed the arrest. Chantal Morales Rojas had been living in Oakland and was returning from a visit to Denver with her former host family, according to Bay Area resident Alycia Dantzker. Dantzker said Rojas previously worked for the family as an au pair when they lived in Santa Cruz County. The family has since moved to Denver. Dantzker said she has known Rojas for three...

I went into Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey expecting a cinematic event. Instead, I saw one of the worst movies ever made. I made it to the 90-minute mark before walking out, but I really should have bailed a half-hour in. We have been utterly bamboozled. As someone who appreciates a script that actually works, I can tell you this screenplay is nonsensical. Combine that with unwatchable lighting and completely incomprehensible audio, and the whole production just falls apart on screen. Matt Damon is completely miscast and entirely too soft to play Odysseus. Honestly, the campy old Steve Reeves movies or Sinbad...

From roughly the 8:20 mark onward in the Glenn Beck clip (“Fauci’s Newly Released Diary EXPOSES His Lies? Here Is What He Wrote…”): Glenn notes that Fauci is scheduled to testify before Congress (with Rand Paul present) and points out that the Biden pardon covers past actions from the prior ~10 years. As a result, Fauci cannot be federally prosecuted for those covered past offenses, so he could theoretically admit to them without new legal jeopardy for the underlying conduct. Glenn’s prediction, however, is that Fauci will still plead the Fifth. He explains why this creates a problem: because the...

The Mayor of Seattle faces fierce fallout over efforts to scrap street surveillance cameras after gunfire at the Seattle Food Festival leaves 3 dead and 4 injured. Investigators report no surveillance cameras were present at the site to help track the suspect. Bite of Seattle is a large food festival that is just blocks from the Space Needle and other major tourist attractions. A few balloonheads decided they wanted to have a gunfight there on Sunday evening. King 5 Seattle notes that there are more than 100,000 visitors to the food festival daily. The police are still searching for more...

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%

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted to those close to him that he was starting to think that perhaps keeping a detailed daily "Perjury Diary" was a bad idea. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci kept meticulous notes in his diary about every lie he told under oath, which in retrospect had begun to seem unwise. "That might have been a mistake," said Fauci as he prepared for Congressional questioning. "It seemed like harmless fun at the time, but I suppose writing down each crime I committed, the date, the motivation, and specific evidence for the...

Bugs Bunny Starred in His First Film on July 27, 1940 Although Warner Bros. had previously showcased rabbits in their cartoons, it wasn’t until July 27, 1940, when The Wild Hare short film hit cinemas, that Bugs Bunny officially starred in his first project. According to Time, animator Chuck Jones credits legendary animator Tex Avery for creating a witty and savvy rabbit. Now as far as the rabbit’s name, that’s slightly debatable. Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs Bunny, claims he came up with the name as homage to an animator named Ben “Bugs” Hardaway. Blanc professed that the studio was...

Elijah Bieniemy – Eric and Mia’s son – was arrested. Elijah has been charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside of a dwelling. He was taken to the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center and held without bond.

In her memoir, abortionist Christine Henneberg wrote about a woman who had an abortion because she believed she was carrying a boy and wanted a girl. Henneberg, who watched the abortion via ultrasound as she committed it, saw that the child was, in fact, a girl—but didn’t tell the woman. Instead, she allowed the woman to believe she’d aborted a boy instead of the girl she wanted. An Ambivalent Woman The woman was 14 weeks pregnant. When she was on the abortion table, she said, “I didn’t want to be here today, you know.” Henneberg didn’t stop the abortion and...

The Houthis enacted a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabian-linked ships and ports, dealing another blow to shipping in the Middle East.Transits in the Strait of Hormuz were down this week compared to the previous week as the U.S. struck Iran for the 13th straight day. London-based Lloyd’s List Intelligence tracked 78 transits between July 13 and Sunday compared to 174 between July 6-12.Both east and westbound transits took a hit with 44 eastbound transits between July 13 and Sunday compared to 101 the prior week. Westbound transits dropped from 73 to 34 in the same period. Numbers may fluctuate as...

The Senate is the only game in town on Capitol Hill for the next two weeks, with the House gone already. The late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) memorial service is Tuesday afternoon at National Cathedral. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are all expected to attend. There’s also a Capitol Rotunda ceremony on Tuesday morning. The Senate has a full plate during its two-week sprint to August recess. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is under pressure from competing factions of his conference — and the White House — over the SAVE America Act,...

The socialists will swallow hard and take her. There’s some talk about AOC, but she’s going to take noted burger chef Chuck Schumer’s Senate seat. AOC’s sell-by date is fast approaching. She’s not really left enough for the socialists, and here’s a hard truth: SHE'S GETTING HEFTY. The attraction was that she was young and cute. They auditioned her for the job, and the key was that she was attractive. Between losing her hotness and the fact that every time she opens her mouth, she says something stupid—like how the Senate was constituted to enshrine Jim Crow about a century...

A circus performer was airlifted to a hospital after his colleague missed her target and hit him in the neck with an arrow while performing in New York, according to authorities.The incident happened as Edwin Cuervo Rangel, 38, and Ana Daza Tavera, 42, were performing at the Orange County Fair in the town of Wallkill at around 9:30 p.m. on Friday, New York State Police said in a press release. Cuervo Rangel and Daza Tavera are married, according to News 12. The two performers from Wisconsin were doing a stunt when Daza Tavera shot an arrow at a foam target...

This past week was the 57th anniversary of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a young woman who somehow found herself in a cardriven by a drunk who just happened to be the brother of a dead president. Most people born after 1980 really have no idea who she was, unless they have an interest in ancient pop culture. Tragically, that is what Mary Jo, a Pennsylvania native, has become to so many: An asterisk in the larger narrative of the so-called “Lion of the Senate.” To me, this pro-abortion womanizer was much more of a jackal, but I’m one...