Free Republic

Brick by brick, President Donald Trump is building a wall around the world’s largest economy. As America’s tariff barriers on everyone else have gone up, so has the drawbridge, making it harder for migrants to enter the country. The president wants to turn America into a fortress that keeps out foreign incursions. In fact, he is cutting America off from the very goods and talent that helped make its economy the envy of the world. Already the damage is starting to show; once wreaked, it will not easily be reversed. That is not how investors see it. In the six...

The Illinois governor, a potential presidential candidate, is fighting the presence of National Guard troops and the activities of ICE agents in Chicago.When President Trump ordered the National Guard to Chicago last week, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois became the latest Democrat to bear the brunt of managing an aggressive federal government. He has concluded it must be combated with a national campaign. Aside from instructing his attorney general to file a lawsuit to block troops from other states coming to Illinois, Mr. Pritzker has few formal options to resist what he described this week as an “unconstitutional invasion of...

Van Jones blames “the Jews” for media silence on Nigerian massacres—but the real reason isn’t anti-Semitic conspiracy; it’s the left’s selective outrage and ideological blind spots. Van Jones, the CNN host and commentator, recently complained that neither the global left nor the mainstream media are covering the horrific violence against Nigerian civilians by Islamic terrorists. True, they are not reporting the slaughter. Truer still, they should be. However, Van Jones went completely off the rails when he blamed “the Jews.” Or as he put it, “No Jews, no news”—a stereotyped statement as anti-Semitic as it is untrue. In truth, lots...

Summary BLS loses senior leaders as Trump targets agency's integrity About 12 of 35 senior leaders have left amid Trump's criticism Modernizing data collection suggested to improve response rates WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's unwarranted attacks on the integrity of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics were undermining trust in economic data and had accelerated retirements of key personnel at the agency, former BLS commissioners said on Wednesday. During a discussion at the libertarian Cato Institute, Erica Groshen and William Beach, who headed the agency under presidents of both parties, said the BLS had lost 12...

The longer the government stays shut down, the shorter House Republicans' patience seems to be getting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Why it matters: Johnson's decision to keep his chamber on an indefinite break in the middle of a government shutdown isn't sitting well with some in his conference — and that could put pressure on the speaker to change course. From frustration over the stalled vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, to questions about whether — as Johnson argues — the chamber really has no business to attend to in Washington, GOP lawmakers are beginning to get antsy....

Alaska's City of Fairbanks Mayor David Pruhs, a Republican, conceded to Mindy O'Neall, a Democrat, in the mayoral election on Tuesday night. According to unofficial election night results made available by the city of Fairbanks, O’Neall received 1,808 votes (54 percent) and Pruhs received 1,528 votes (45.7 percent). Newsweek has contacted Pruhs and O'Neall for comment via emails sent outside regular business hours. Why It Matters The ballot in mayoral elections in Fairbanks does not list party affiliations next to candidates’ names, but Republicans have held the role in Fairbanks for nearly a decade. Pruhs, a conservative backed by local...

President Trump has unleashed new weaponry in his war against Democrats, liberals and the left. Over the past four weeks, he has initiated what amounts to a unique form of partisan civil war designed to amass power in a nominal democracy and defang, decimate and defund the opposition. Trump’s assault on the left combines the use of the available tools of violent conflict — the military, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE in particular — with the prosecution of critics (and people he just doesn’t like), cuts of essential funds for liberal institutions, the use of regulation to threaten...

With its popularity in the United States crashing, Israel is bankrolling what organizers say will be the largest campaign of its kind to bolster support among evangelical churches, until recently seen as an unshakable base of support for the Jewish state. Israel’s Foreign Ministry has hired an American firm to run the campaign, with plans to spend as much as $4.1 million on marketing aimed at Christians across the Western part of the country, according to newly filed federal disclosures. The documents, filed last week under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, reveal that Show Faith by Works, LLC will execute...

If you’re old enough to have admired CBS in its heyday, watching its decline has been painful.Decades ago, it was dubbed the Tiffany Network – home of the great journalist Walter Cronkite (“the most trusted man in America”), and innovator of the top-flight magazine program, 60 Minutes.Even outside its news division, the network was a place where the variety-show host Ed Sullivan could break down racial exclusion by inviting outstanding Black entertainers to his Sunday night program; that was controversial in an era of intense racial turmoil. The CBS news department had some of the best journalists in the nation,...

You might not like some of the language he uses, but Noah Smith’s lengthy take on the state of American politics is worth a read. It’s not drivel spewed on Salon or MSNBC. It’s a fair take on the MAGA movement and the structural and political disadvantages of the Left, which aren’t going away if they keep this destructive march on most of their action items. Smith concedes there are kernels of truth to the ‘great replacement theory,’ noting the changes in California’s politics. Again, you might not agree with the authoritarian observations he makes about the MAGA movement, but...

In 1994, 17 Senate Republicans — including Mitch McConnell — lined up behind the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. They thought they were cutting a clever deal: In exchange for criminalizing anti-abortion protesters outside clinics, the law would also apply to anyone blocking access to churches. Like every “bipartisan compromise,” the results were anything but balanced. For decades, pro-life activists — grandmothers singing hymns, young people praying on sidewalks — faced years in prison for nonviolent protest. Meanwhile, not a single violent leftist or Islamist was prosecuted under the FACE Act for harassing or assaulting people of faith....

The status quo is not going to cut it for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at his Tuesday meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington. With an unemployment rate of 7.1%, the highest level in nine years and half a percentage point higher since the start of this year, Canada’s economy is faltering. Steep tariffs Trump slapped on cars, steel and aluminum — key Canadian exports to the United States — are making matters worse. And Carney’s meeting is happening just as Trump is prepared to deal another blow to the Canadian economy: tariffs on softwood and lumber, among the...

Communities with high rates of cousin marriages are significantly more likely to claim disability benefits, according to new data seen by The Mail on Sunday. Analysis shows a rise of a quarter in the handouts in areas where the practice is more common. In Bradford, where one in six children is born to parents who are cousins, disability benefits are 23 per cent higher than average, costing the taxpayer millions of pounds more every week. Experts say that the increase is down to the higher risk of birth defects and deformities – which include blindness, hearing loss and schizophrenia –...

Charlie Kirk furiously criticized 'bullying' Jewish donors and said he was considering 'leaving the pro-Israel cause' before his death, it was confirmed today. The bombshell revelation comes after Candace Owens released a screenshot of Kirk fuming in a group chat that Jewish donors were pulling funding over his links to Tucker Carlson. Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet confirmed the authenticity of the screenshots on Tuesday during the latest episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, In the text messages, Kirk privately complained that a Jewish donor had withdrawn a $2 million investment into the organization because he refused to disinvite Carlson...

In the board game Taboo, a speaker seeks to lead listeners to a certain answer and must point the way using only words that the game allows. The game sets a predetermined goal and censors the speech that would best help teams to achieve it. Such rules ensure a fun game night, but when states deploy them, it crashes the party and violates the First Amendment. Just ask Colorado counselors. In 2019, Colorado enacted a law that restricts them from having certain conversations about gender and sexuality with clients under the age of 18. Any counselor who speaks the forbidden...

Hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal workers may not automatically receive back pay once the government reopens, the White House indicated in a draft memo, prompting broad fears that the Trump administration might try to circumvent federal law to maximize the pain of the shutdown. The memo, which was shared by a White House official, could presage a radical break from a policy adopted during President Trump’s first term. It appeared to contradict some of the administration’s own guidance, which by Tuesday still indicated that furloughed employees would receive retroactive pay shortly after Congress strikes a funding deal. Following the...

After two years of war, there is a chance of a deal that will end the killing and destruction in Gaza and return the Israeli hostages, living and dead, to their families. It is an opportunity, but it is not certain that it will be seized by Hamas and Israel.It is a grim coincidence that the talks are happening exactly two years after Hamas inflicted a trauma on Israelis that is still acute. The 7 October attacks killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and 251 were taken hostage. The Israelis estimate that 20 hostages are still alive and they...

“Hate speech.” The term calls to mind every sort of vile and disgusting insult and racial and ethnic slur. Who could possibly be in favor of allowing that? Large numbers of people instinctively assume that hateful statements, particularly those based on racial, religious or ethnic categories, must surely be illegal. But here in the U.S., such statements in general are not illegal, and not subject to criminal prosecution. A couple of weeks ago, our Attorney General Pam Bondi was recorded on a podcast saying that “We will absolutely . . . go after you, if you are targeting anyone with...

Portland’s left-wing mobs and officials are waging a neo-Confederate-style rebellion—defying federal law, protecting illegal aliens, and turning the city into a sanctuary for anarchy. In blue cities across America—Portland, Oregon, especially—often violent protesters now seek to surround ICE facilities to stop federal officers from fulfilling their assigned and legal duties of arresting illegal aliens. Some 10 million or more illegal aliens were allowed to enter the U.S. during the Biden years—illegally and thus without criminal or health checks. Neither Antifa nor liberal urban America objected to such a flagrant disregard for the law. But both are now as intent on...

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The United States cannot ignore the impact the war in Gaza has had on Israel's global standing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, as Israel's diplomatic isolation mounts despite Washington's attempts to shield its ally. "Whether you believe it was justified or not, right or not, you cannot ignore the impact that this has had on Israel's global standing," Rubio told CBS News' 'Face The Nation'. He was responding to a question about remarks by President Donald Trump to Israel's Channel 12 in an interview published on Saturday: "Bibi (Israel's Prime...