Free Republic

Republicans have tried more than 70 times over the past 15 years to weaken or kill Obamacare. But their campaign keeps backfiring. The sweeping tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed this summer got his party closer to that goal than ever before. Though never marketed as a repeal, it unraveled much of the law and is expected to eventually push millions of people who gained insurance since the Affordable Care Act’s passage off the rolls. Even that legislative achievement is proving politically fraught. As the partial government shutdown stretches into its second week, the White House and a...

The New York Times poll asked 1,313 registered respondents if they approve of Trump’s policy of “Deporting immigrants living in the United States illegally back to their home countries.”Fifty-four percent approved, including 38 percent who strongly approve.But just 24 percent — or one-in-four — strongly disapprove of the opportunity program. That bloc includes 25 percent of independents, one percent of Trump voters, and 43 percent of voters who backed Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024The New York Times poll was conducted September 22-27. Fifty-six percent of 2,413 registered voters support Trump’s policy of “Deporting all immigrants who are here illegally,”...

On September 1862, weeks before he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln wrestled with the enormous dilemma of whether to change the stakes of the Civil War…In a private document found after his death, the president struggled to understand what God expected of him and of the nation. “The will of God prevails,” Lincoln began. “In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is...

Among issues Charlie Kirk took a strong stand against was immigration, even legal immigration stemming from H1B visas that many Indian students and professionals use. “America does not need more visas for people from India. Perhaps no form of legal immigration has so displaced American workers as those from India. Enough already. We’re full. Let’s finally put our own people first,” he said in a post on X on September 1 He was responding to a Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham’s post suggesting that a US-India trade deal might involve more visas for Indian professionals. In a subsequent post on...

Immigration-focused narratives, especially those related to H-1B visas and portraying Indians as “job stealers” dominated online discourse on X, amplifying xenophobia and fueling calls for deportation and denaturalization, according to a new report. The report, Anti-Indian Racism on X: Causes, Trends, and Narratives, released by The Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) today documents a surge in anti-Indian racism on the American microblogging platform between July and September 2025. The 680 high-engagement posts analyzed for this report amassed more than 281 million views, underscoring the scale of online racism targeting Indian communities, according to CSOH. Notably, August saw...

Whoever once (perhaps apocryphally) said that younger conservatives have no heart and older liberals have no brain had a point. Conservatives communicate more effectively with words and reason; progressives, by contrast, with pictures and emotion. The Right's dominance of AM radio—has long been an annoyance to the Left, a blemish on an otherwise near-perfect record of winning the culture. Talk radio is perhaps the only major cultural redoubt the Left has failed to breach. The New York Times, NPR, and Crooked Media have thrived in the podcast space, but here too conservatives punch well above their weight. Where imagery is...

The Supreme Court will likely agree with lower courts that ruled President Donald Trump can’t use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs, according experts surveyed by JPMorgan. Trade and legal experts said the odds that the high court will rule against the Trump administration are 70%-80% and expect a decision by the end of the year

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...

"She sailed on a boat following Greta Thunberg in trying to stop the genocide in Gaza"Björk has called for her “childhood friend” and musician Magga Stína’s “safe return” after her family claimed she had been kidnapped by Israeli forces. Read More: Here’s what went down at ‘Together For Palestine’, with Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Richard Gere, Florence Pugh and more The singer-songwriter, who recently joined the ‘No Music For Genocide’ campaign – a cultural boycott initiative encouraging artists and rights-holders to pull their music from streaming platforms in Israel in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza – took...

When challenged that killing citizens without due process is a war crime, the vice president responded that he "didn't give a sh*t." Sometimes in fits of anger, loud voices will say they don't care about niceties such as due process—they just want to kill bad guys. For a brief moment, all of us may share that anger and may even embrace revenge or retribution. But over 20,000 people are murdered in the U.S. each year, and yet somehow we find a way to a dispassionate dispensation of justice that includes legal representation for the accused and jury trial. Why? Because...

Washington — American farmers are having a tough year, in no small part because of President Donald Trump’s trade war. Now, the White House is gearing up to extend them a multi-billion-dollar bailout, sources tell CNN. Surging costs and foreign retaliation from tariffs have hurt the US agriculture industry — as have immigration-related labor shortages and plummeting commodity prices. Farm production expenses are estimated to reach $467.4 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department, up $12 billion from last year. Farm bankruptcies rose in the first half of the year to the highest level since 2021, according to US...

You have probably heard that something extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church in France. The French bishops’ conference announced in April that more than 10,000 adults were due to be baptized in 2025 – a 45 percent increase on the year before. It’s not just adult baptisms that are booming. A record 19,000 people , many young, attended this year’s Paris to Chartres pilgrimage. An unprecedented 13,500 high school students took part in the 2025 Lourdes FRAT pilgrimage, a major annual youth event. The country is also seeing what French media call a “boom biblique” : a rapid rise...

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...

Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has been one of MAGA's favorite members of Congress, but that title may be waning. Greene has split from the bulk of her party, as well as President Donald Trump, on several key issues, including signing a petition to release the Epstein Files earlier this year, which she hasn't removed her name from despite reported requests to do so from Trump's allies. Just this week, Greene was praised by Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who said on Tuesday, 'I think this is the first time I've said this, but on this issue, Representative Greene...

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...

Dr Vatsya highlights the health benefits of black coffee, stating that it helps dissolve liver fat and improves overall health. Black coffee contains health benefits that can help dissolve liver fat. (Pexels) ================================================================ Coffee is an essential part of many people's daily morning routine. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), caffeine, chlorogenic acid (CGA), trigonelline, diterpenes, and melanoids are compounds in coffee known for their health benefits. However, it matters how you take your coffee to reap all its benefits. A cuppa with loads of added sweeteners or sugars and milk isn't the best choice. It is black...

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,...

Terradot, a carbon removal company, is using “enhanced rock weathering” to sequester carbon by spreading crushed volcanic rock over farmland.STATE OF SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Across vast stretches of farmland in southern Brazil, researchers at a carbon removal company are attempting to accelerate a natural process that normally unfolds over thousands or millions of years. The company, Terradot, is spreading tons of volcanic rock crushed into a fine dust over land where soybeans, sugar cane and other crops are grown. As rain percolates through the soil, chemical reactions pull carbon from the air and convert it into bicarbonate ions that...