Free Republic

In June 1969, a courageous group of Americans rose up to protest the violence and marginalization they faced in what became known as the Stonewall Uprising. Police had raided the Stonewall Inn — a gay bar located in New York City — and for the next six days they clashed with LGBTQI+ protestors, who bravely stood their ground. Their courage sparked a civil rights movement for the liberation of the LGBTQI+ community and changed our Nation forever.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Memorial Day weekend marks the first major test for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Memorial Day weekend last year was filled with violence with nearly 50 people shot. This year with a new leader in place, Mayor Brandon Johnson has a new plan in place, vowing it will be different this year. Johnson said a $2.5 million investment from the Partnership for Safe and Peaceful Communities' eighth annual Chicago Fund is part of the plan. The public-private partnership will support violence prevention and youth outreach efforts across the city by funding the work of 253 grassroots organizations...

HORTON, MI - A flag waving in front of Hanover-Horton High School on Monday with the slogan “Let’s go Brandon” was not a political statement from the school, but a prank played by the senior class, Superintendent John Denney said. The attention-grabbing flag was one of several that members of the senior class raised on light polls outside the high school Monday morning, May 8, Denney said. Another six or seven flags with identical “Senior Class of 2023″ messages were raised, he said. The “Let’s go Brandon” flag was removed around 1 p.m. Monday, Denney said, when the district was...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirmed June 1 as the hard deadline to raise the debt ceiling on Monday, saying she expects the United States will be unable to pay all of its bills in a little over a week. If an agreement isn’t reached to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt, the country could descend into economic disarray, affecting millions of Americans from investors to Social Security beneficiaries. Nevertheless, consumers can take steps to safeguard their finances from some of the effects of the crisis. There isn’t much precedent on what to do in case of a...

The notion of waking up early and starting your day with the rising sun is often associated with productivity, success, and a strong work ethic. However, this seemingly innocuous concept is not without its historical and cultural implications. In this article, we will explore the origins of the early-rising narrative and how it is rooted in white supremacy, contributing to the perpetuation of racial inequalities. The Origins of the Early Rising Ideology The idea that waking up early leads to success and a disciplined life can be traced back to various historical and religious contexts. In the Western world, this...

As a seventy-year resident of Springfield, Ill, I was amazed and amused that there was an article in the Wall Street Journal, a supposedly reputable, savvy business newspaper touting Springfield as a great place to buy a house. It is as if the reporter doesn’t know how to read, think, analyze, and ask questions before regurgitating something. WCIA TV writes:Springfield was featured in a national publication as one of the best housing markets.An article in the Wall Street Journal published earlier this month listed Springfield, Illinois as number 17 out of 300 for towns on the WSJ/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets...

Footage showing crates of Bud Light getting blown up with an artillery gun has been posted on social media and received more than 350,000 views. The clip was from a video shared online by self-described "gun lover" Stefan Gol and shows cases of Bud Light being destroyed by military weapons to the sound of Ted Nugent's 'Come And Take It.' Bud Light was targeted by a conservative boycott after working with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and sending over a personalized can to celebrate her "day 365 of womanhood." A 37-second segment from Gol's video was posted on Twitter by Ron...

May Day should be a day to honor victims of an ideology that took tens of millions of lives. But we should also be open to alternative dates if they can attract broad enough support.NOTE: This post largely reprints last year's Victims of Communism Day post, with some modifications. Today is May Day. Since 2007, I have advocated using this date as an international Victims of Communism Day. I outlined the rationale for this proposal (which was not my original idea) in my very first post on the subject: May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union...

A Missouri Republican state lawmaker posted video on social media that he said showed a group of young kids repeatedly chanting “Let’s go Brandon” in unison at a youth wrestling tournament in Independence last week. The video was posted on Twitter by state Rep. Aaron McMullen, an Independence Republican. McMullen said on Twitter that the video was filmed at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, which hosted the Adidas Wrestling Nationals, a K-12 tournament. In the video, the group of kids are seen smacking a wrestling mat between the chants. The phrase has been adopted as a rallying cry in conservative...

Dylan Mulvaney has already cost Bud Light millions of dollars, but he’s not done causing chaos yet. The transgender “influencer” entered into the broader public eye after Joe Biden invited him to the White House back in 2022. Think about that. A president who hasn’t done a challenging interview since he took office found time to receive softballs from a grown man who pretends to be a prepubescent girl. But I digress. Mulvaney has been propped up by corporate America despite only claiming to be a “girl” for a little over a year. He’s got endorsement deals with companies like...

Two Michigan middle schoolers are suing their school district for barring them from wearing sweatshirts that say “Let’s Go Brandon” — a popular right-wing rally cry that stands as a substitute for cursing out President Biden. The boys’ mother argued that the ban infringes on their constitutional rights, while the Tri County Area School District insists the sweatshirts violate its dress code, which bars clothing “with messages that are lewd, indecent, vulgar or profane,” the Detroit Free Press reported. The lawsuit alleges that when the brothers wore their “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts to Tri County Middle School last year, an...

Joe Biden formally launched his re-election campaign on Tuesday, asking Americans to give him another four years to finish what he started. The president, famously nostalgic, chose to launch his campaign on the fourth anniversary of his return to politics in 2019, when he declared his intention to seek the presidential nomination for a third time. Then, like now, Biden relied on a video to formally declare his candidacy before venturing on to the campaign trail.

Just when you think the Biden administration can’t possibly have any more awful ideas, his team rolls out a plan to punish Americans with high credit scores to subsidize high-risk homebuyers. On Wednesday, The Washington Times reported that starting May 1, Americans purchasing a new home or refinancing their existing mortgage can expect to pay higher mortgage rates and monthly fees if they have a higher credit score. Americans with lower credit scores and smaller down payments will be given better rates. In other words, Biden is essentially stealing from the rich to give to the needy by adjusting the...

The Washington Legislature has passed a bill banning the sale, purchase, or importation of rifles, pistols, and shotguns deemed to be “assault weapons,” though legislators voting in opposition argued it won’t survive a legal challenge. “It’s going to pass [the Legislature],” Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, told colleagues on the Senate floor. “I’m sure it will be signed by the governor. It’s going to be struck down, it’s not going to change anything.” HB 1240 initially cleared both chambers, but the Senate version was rejected by the House for adding an amendment by Wagoner exempting active military personnel receiving orders to...

While ignoring a cornucopia of crises in his two-plus years as Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg has found a supposed crisis that he will address, and it sounds a lot like his previously trotted-out theory that bridges are a tool of racism. Speaking with Al Sharpton on MSNBC, Buttigieg declared "we've got a crisis when it comes to roadway fatalities in America" before making his usual pivot to frame the problem as one of race. "We lose about 40,000 people every year," Buttigieg told Sharpton, adding roadway fatalities are "a level that's comparable to gun violence" for emphasis. "And we...

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the most part, listened to the recommendations of the attending physicians and rested almost all day. In the evening, Putin held a meeting with representatives of the leadership of the power and military blocs in video communication mode, but if the image of the meeting participants was present on the president's monitor, then on the monitors of the meeting participants themselves, the image of the president was absent, only a voice was heard. This format of communication happens in cases of poor health of the president. During the meeting, the president was informed about...

The wall of debt is set to get worse before it gets better. Maturities climb for the coming four years, peaking at $550 billion in 2027. Almost $1.5 trillion of US commercial real estate debt comes due for repayment before the end of 2025. The big question facing those borrowers is who’s going to lend to them? “Refinancing risks are front and center” for owners of properties from office buildings to stores and warehouses, Morgan Stanley analysts including James Egan wrote in a note this past week. “The maturity wall here is front-loaded. So are the associated risks.” The investment...

Scott Ritter describes the paymaster system in the Country 404 military. All of that is being done with US taxpayer money of course.

Biden is pushing his expected 2024 campaign kickoff even later in the year — and may even delay it until this fall, according to a new report. Advisers and close allies of the oldest-ever president told Axios they don’t expect Biden to formally announce his candidacy before this summer — despite their initial suggestions late last year that he would announce soon after the start of 2023. The second political fundraising quarter ends June 30, giving Biden plenty of time to rake in donations before an announcement — and some members of his team are pushing to hold the launch...

They released Biden’s March Jobs Report today … Good Friday. A holiday. As anyone who doesn’t have their head completely buried in the sand would have guessed, jobs are down, except for in the public sector. Oh goodie, more people working for the government. And of course, things are even worse than they’re actually reporting in the media. Take a look at this: of the 236k added, 75k were second jobs. pic.twitter.com/lsGactxQpZ — Frog Capital (@FrogNews) April 7, 2023 Yay! Unemployment is down … but it’s because people are working two jobs to survive in this economy. Did we mention...