Free Republic

This could really take a bite out of the Big Apple. The secondhand apparel industry may be dodging duties on imported goods – but the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on thrift shops may still bring a wrecking ball to businesses across the city, resellers told The Post. “There’s a lot of rhetoric that everybody’s going to turn to second-hand [clothing] when wallets tighten,” said Alexis Krase, owner of plus-size secondhand store Plus BKLYN in Greenpoint. “But overall, I think that ultimately means people are also being more critical of spending dollars in general: Overall sales will be down.” Krase,...

Some modern Americans claim to not fear death. On November 15 last year, boxer Mike Tyson told a 14-year-old girl interviewing him that he has no fear of what happens after he dies. When he was asked about his legacy after his death, Tyson told her: “It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that?”

Iran’s so-called “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reportedly persuaded to talk with the Trump administration about a new nuclear deal after being told by advisers that the regime could collapse if he did not. Khamenei had previously rejected talks with Trump. But with Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions, his military action against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, and Israel’s destruction of Iran’s air defenses last year, Khamenei’s advisers appear to have believed that the regime was on the ropes. The New York Times reported Friday: Mr. Khamenei had publicly and repeatedly banned engaging with Washington, calling it unwise...

Former President Barack Obama and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday night attacked the 47th president’s actions as dangerous and “unconstitutional.” Obama, during an on-stage interview at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, chided Trump’s efforts to right-size the federal government and crack down on rampant illegal immigration among other actions to fulfill his “America First” agenda. “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors,” Obama said.

One of the common adjectives abortion advocates use in front of the word “child” is “wanted.” Since the American Birth Control League (now Planned Parenthood) first created its “Every Child, a Wanted Child” motto in an attempt to control population, the idea that children shouldn’t exist unless they are “wanted” by their parents has become widely accepted. Yet, research shows that women aren’t necessarily aborting because they don’t want their babies, but because they’ve been led to believe abortion is the only option they have. Margaret Sanger, the eugenic founder of the American Birth Control League wanted “[to] create a...

The declining U.S. birth rate, and the broader demographic shifts it contributes towards, have become a growing concern for policymakers and economists alike. Economic and demographic experts told Newsweek that the trend is one that threatens to destabilize not only the U.S. economy—potentially resulting in several percentage points being knocked off America's annual GDP growth—but global markets as well. "I think it's the single most important issue facing economies across the world, and by some distance," said James Pomeroy, a global economist at HSBC. As is the case with almost every country on earth, U.S. birth rates have been trending...

Leftist Trump haters intent on attacking the president and Elon Musk’s Tesla have launched the “DOGEQUEST” website targeting the owners of Tesla EVs. The website includes the personal details of Tesla owners across the country and features a molotov cocktail cursor icon. The clear implication is that Tesla owners will be the next target of domestic terrorism rapidly escalating across the country. 404 Media reports that a website titled “DOGEQUEST” has published on a searchable map the alleged names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of Tesla owners throughout the United States. The site claims it will remove an individual’s...

Nervous travelers have been worrying about taking to the air given the recent airplane crashes in the news. Even so, one man with aerophobia, or a fear of flying, believes there’s nothing to be afraid of — and he’s on a mission to help others address their concerns. Brian Morris of Salt Lake City, Utah, created “Flight Deck: Fear Of Flying Flash Cards” to help anxious flyers calm themselves about takeoff procedures and the travel experience. “In light of the recent flight incidents and accidents, I know firsthand how these events can evoke fear and uncertainty in many individuals,” Morris...

The Treasury Department's Office of Inspector General on Friday said it was launching an audit of the security controls for the federal government's payment system, after Democratic senators raised red flags about the access provided to Trump aide Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team. The audit will also review the past two years of the system’s transactions as it relates to Musk’s assertion of ‘’alleged fraudulent payments,‘’ according to a letter from Loren J. Sciurba, Treasury’s deputy inspector general, that was obtained by The Associated Press. The audit marks part of the broader effort led by Democratic lawmakers and...

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was afraid there will be “more violence” as a result of President Donald Trump’s January 6 pardons. Host Kristen Welker said, “Your colleague, Senator Tim Kaine, had this to say about President Biden pardoning his family members. He says, ‘It’s harder to stand on the high ground and make a critique of the Trump pardons on January 6 when President Biden is pardoning family members.’ Do you agree with that? Does it make it harder to criticize President Trump’s decision to issue those blanket pardons to the...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson responded to a question on whether he would support deportation raids that focused on people with criminal convictions by stating that “this has happened under previous administrations, whether it’s President Obama or President Biden. This is not anything new. I think what the President is attempting to do is to create hyperbolic fear and tension in this country, and that’s not what we need right now.” Co-host A Martínez asked, [relevant exchange begins around 6:35] “Mayor, quickly, about 30 seconds, if these raids were to focus on people with...

On December 12, 2024, USA Today published a hit piece on “ghost guns” attempting to use the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as a reason to impose unconstitutional restrictions on homemade firearms. It appears Brian Thompson was assassinated with a homemade firearm. However, the manufacture of the firearm did not interfere with the investigation of his murder. The suspect was arrested without any assistance from gun tracing data, as is the case with virtually all violent crimes. Gun tracing has no measurable effect on solving violent crimes. It is difficult to find any violent crime that was solved with...

Negative language can perpetuate feelings of doom. Don’t be a doomer. Individuals who are regularly exposed to content about global warming or climate change have reported stronger feelings of inefficacy or the inability to contribute to a desired goal, a study found. [More at link]

Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President-elect Donald Trump will be misreading “his mandate” if he goes after his political rivals. Kristen Welker said, “I want to play something that President-elect Trump said about you when he was a candidate, he called you, quote, more dangerous than foreign adversaries. Take a listen and I’ll get your reaction on the other side.” On Fox News, Trump said, “The enemy from within in my opinion is more dangerous than China and Russia and all these countries. If you have a smart president, he can handle them...

Authorities erected barricades around the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters office in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. The bureau claims it has seen an increase in threats against the FBI and its agents in the wake of the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last week. Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo tweeted photos of the new barricades around the FBI headquarters. “With an increasing number of threats against the FBI and agents, including an armed man who tried to breach a field office in Ohio, officials have put up barricades around FBI headquarters in DC. Similar...

Democrats are spending another week wondering if Kamala Harris has let her momentum in the 2024 race completely slip away. A murderer's row of bad PR for the Harris campaign this week featured continued tanking in the polls, a widely panned CNN town hall, Donald Trump beating her to the Joe Rogan bump and even fellow Democrats slamming her rhetoric. Harris now trails Trump in the polling average in the crucial swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to Real Clear Politics. Fear is now gripping Harris' campaign and the 'vibes' are draining away as prominent Democratic lawmakers, as...

We are now at the Trump-is-worse-than Hitler stage of the Kamala Harris campaign, with just over two weeks until Election Day. That’s the word from The Atlantic magazine, where CIA cipher Anne Applebaum wrote another hilarious anti-Trump diatribe last week titled “Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini.” The Atlantic has dedicated itself to destroying Donald Trump and all his works since it was bought by Laurene Jobs, the billionaire widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who just happens to be one of VP Kamala’s best friends, and who helped mobilize fellow Democrat donors to topple Joe Biden after...

For many Americans, the Covid pandemic and draconian lockdowns it ushered in feel like a thing of the past. Biden declared the pandemic over last May, and it's not been viewed as a major voter issue since. But for some Americans, the masking and social distancing never ended. Sara Anne Willette, from New Jersey, has spent more than 1,600 days in isolation, rarely leaving home and planning to further isolate to the countryside. Her hope is to get back to gardening, running, and drinking coffee on the porch. She even plans to buy enough land so other immunocompromised people who...

Democrats fear smug overconfidence within the party during Vice President Kamala Harris’s honeymoon stage will ruin her chances of withstanding bruising attacks as the November election nears. Democrat strategists understand that Harris, who is a far-left radical West Coast Democrat, will eventually have to answer questions about her record and survive any October surprise or opposition research deployed to derail her campaign. “Every presidential campaign in modern history has had to go through an unanticipated scandal, crisis or world event, and at some point, that political law is going to happen to Kamala Harris’s campaign,” Fernand Amandi, a former President...

Documentarian Michael Moore still fears Democrats could lose big time in November, despite the establishment left’s non-stop euphoria over Kamala Harris. Michael Moore expressed his doubt in an interview this week with Britain’s The Guardian. “It was so depressing for so many weeks and then it was instantly not depressing,” he said. “I am hopeful now but it’s ours to blow – and we have a history of blowing it.”