Free Republic

*** Key administration officials are pushing the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to design a $250 banknote with Trump’s image, the Washington Post reported. Should the Treasury Department move ahead with the plan, it would mark the first time a living person’s face was slapped on a greenback since 1866. The $250 note would be a nod to America’s 250th birthday*** Under the Thayer Amendment, which passed in 1866, it is illegal to put the likeness of a living person on official US currency, bonds, or other financial notes. Nonetheless, US Treasurer Brandon Beach and his top adviser,...

Eight killed and 38 trapped following an explosion at a coal mine in northern China... attacking Ukrainian drone starting a fire...oil depot...southern Russia... Three men named as sexual abusers by former Jeffrey Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen... British police appealing for witnesses...possible sexual misconduct by Andrew Mountbatten Windsor... federal judge in Tennessee throwing out...charges leveled against Kilmar Abrego Garcia... New rules announced for foreigners seeking 'green cards'... 40,000 residents ordered to evacuate in Garden Grove, California... Trump holding Iran War discussions...report this evening claiming the President... A Qatari delegation...apparently left Tehran...Iranian Civil Aviation Authority with a notice closing... Ukraine War a...

Stephen Colbert's 11-year run as host of "The Late Show" will end on May 21. That its untimely end was announced mere weeks before the Trump-loyalist Ellison family finalized their CBS-Paramount takeover led many to believe it was a move to appease Trump, while the network claimed Colbert's late-night program was losing around $40 million a year - a figure that led friendly rival Jimmy Kimmel to quip, "Not a snowball's chance in hell that's accurate." Snip... Well, whatever the reason, Colbert is out in a week. And so, for his final weeks, the funnyman has welcomed an assortment of...

The European Union’s population is expected to plunge by 53 million by the end of the century after the bloc’s birth rate fell to a record low. In new projections released on Thursday, the number of people living across the continent will fall to 398.9 million by 2100, down from 451.8 million today. The population is expected to grow by an extra 1.5 million over the next three years, before then shrinking consistently over the next six decades. This decline is equivalent to the entire populations of Spain and Ireland disappearing. The forecasts also show that the age of the...

Listen to this. I think many FReepers will like it.Weaponized Victimhood | The Alchemy of Agony

“The world sees you now: not as compassionate warriors, but as spoiled, entitled, reality-denying tyrants in yoga pants, wielding guilt and hysteria like switchblades.” —LHGrey on "X". The political grandstanding started way back in 1973 when the irascible Marlon Brando stayed home from the Academy Awards but sent an Apache princess, one Sacheen Littlefeather, to the podium to decline his award (Best Actor for The Godfather) on account of the 71-day standoff at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota between federal agents and Oglala Lakota activists who had seized the little town of Wounded Knee. After that, political...

Sure, it’s not turning empty soda cans into airplane parts. But giving new life to the fallen fat is how AlloClae — a glamorous, albeit ghoulish, new advancement in non-surgical cosmetic enhancements — is helping slim centerfolds in NYC and beyond achieve the BBLs and boob jobs of their wildest dreams. And it’s different from all the other nonsurgical enlargements on the market because, well, it’s reliant on people who’ve kicked the bucket. If you’re suddenly worried that ticking the organ donor box on your driver’s license could mean you wind up on someone else’s behind in the afterlife, it’s...

Donald Trump has doubled down on his attacks on Rob Reiner after the Hollywood star and his wife were apparently murdered. The President appeared to blame Reiner and Michele's killings on the liberal director's 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' in a Monday post on Truth Social. Hollywood celebrities and Republicans pushed back on his statement, with some calling it 'disgusting and vile.' But the President seemed undeterred in his criticism of the late director. When pressed by a reporter in the Oval Office about his previous statement, he said: 'Well, I wasn't a fan of his at all. He was a deranged...

Fired MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd on journalist Katie Couric’s YouTube channel Friday complained about how his former network was covering Jimmy Kimmel’s indefinite suspension, but not his firing. Dowd was fired on Sept. 10 after appearing to suggest on “Katy Tur Reports” the same day that Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric naturally led to him being shot. Dowd said on Couric’s YouTube channel that MSNBC pundits were providing wall-to-wall alarmist coverage about Kimmel, whose suspension also followed comments about Kirk, while ignoring him. “All the shows are talking about how this is awful for America that...

Trump has replaced the LinkedIn avatar for the White House with his picture so any former Klintoon, Obama or Biden staff member has his picture on their profile. Here's a link to one former WH employee. https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-silverberg-84513b3/

Aesop wrote that “the smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.” For Republicans, Jasmine Crockett embodies that and is an eternal source of hilarity. She thinks she can be all things to all people. Her accent changes depending upon to whom she is speaking. Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris tried the same thing and were also justifiably mocked for it. Crockett allegedly has a fine education, expensive private schools, college and law school. This is not evident in her public appearances. She has stated that the people who voted for and support Trump “lack education” while it is she who...

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy didn't mince words when discussing the "lazy, entitled losers" taking baby boomers' place in today's workforce. Gen Z – the generation born between 1997 and 2012 – has received a bad rap for laziness, entitlement, emotional sensitivity and poor communication skills in recent years. Since they've overtaken their baby boomer grandparents at the office, the changes are already showing for some of those managing them. "They don't want to work. They're spoiled brats," Portnoy said Thursday on "Varney & Co." "They've grown up in a world where it's [an] everyone gets a trophy generation, and...

... It’s uncomfortable to watch a younger version of yourself put through this, with their boundaries, privacy and dignity totally disregarded by our narcissistic dads. One day these children will look back at what their fathers put in the public domain, and it will further complicate their feelings around their father’s transition. A couple of years after I moved in with my father, who at that time was ‘living as a woman’ but hadn’t any surgery, I was brought to a pub in London for my father to discuss with another transsexual the possibility that I could be useful in...

A Yale-affiliated psychiatrist encouraged LGBTQ+ people whose family members voted for Donald Trump to cut ties and shun their relatives over the upcoming holidays — as fallout from the election reached hysteria on left-leaning MSNBC. Yale University child psychiatry fellow Dr. Amanda Calhoun dug into the issue of the post-election crises in the LGBTQ+ community with MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Friday night. “There is a societal push that, if somebody is your family, they are entitled to your time. And I think the answer is absolutely not,” Calhoun said in a clip shared online. “So, if you are going through...

Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) claimed Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Vice President Kamala Harris has a broad base of support because “progressives love her, conservatives respect her.” Host Nicolle Wallace said, “We compare her to President Obama, whose campaign is similar in terms of the enthusiasm, but ideologically, she’s already rallied a much wider coalition. Her enthusiast supporters, include Bernie Sanders and Dick Cheney. I wonder if you can speak to the broadness, the broad base of support.”

There is a creeping sense that our society has turned upside-down. Healthy debate is replaced by activist hysterics. Speech is declared violence; violence is excused as speech. Masculinity is condemned as “toxic,” while men in dresses are celebrated in the public square. It feels as if we are in the midst of a society-wide mental breakdown. … A strange new pattern of psychological dysfunction has infiltrated all our institutions, from humdrum bureaucracies to the highest offices. Wherever we turn, that creeping feeling sets in: our society is sick; our institutions are out of balance; our public life has been consumed...

Why is there so much self-promotion in our society, self-inflating behavior at the expense of others? Data suggests “narcissism,” the outsized need for admiration, blind conceit, and lack of empathy is rising. Why? With what effect on society? These questions – why and with what effect on society– are important for understanding the world in which we live and assessing the drift of society. Unpacking the complicated drift of society toward unrepentant, unapologetic, often unaware self-aggrandizement is tough, but several facts pop off the page. First, social media – self-tailored, instant, one-to-many communications – have grabbed society faster than any...

...few have described wokeism as the cruel creed that it is.Wokeism’s natural logic is to destroy the lives of people of both genders, of all races, and—if need be—those of every age, all to leverage an otherwise unworkable ideological agenda. It is nihilist and destroys everything it touches. It tears apart foes and friends alike, whether by fueling media-driven hatred of Donald Trump or faux-deification of the disaster that is now Joe Biden.

Almost a century ago, the psychologist Jean Piaget defined the stages of cognitive development. Up until about age 2, children learn about cause and effect through their actions. For the next five years, they learn through pretend play but struggle with logic. By middle school, they're in the "concrete operational stage." Their thinking is more logical but still rigid. Then around age 12, children enter the "formal operational stage," becoming capable of theoretical and abstract reasoning. This progression isn't just about acquiring knowledge; it's about a change in the very nature of how we think. Madeline Levine, a psychologist and...

Playing a role in the sudden rise of transgender children may be "transhausen by proxy," a term coined for narcissistic parents who push so-called "gender transitioning" on their children, some experts say. Celebrities are increasingly in the limelight with announcements about their children who come out as transgender or nonbinary. Nonbinary individuals identify as neither male nor female. "Transhausen by proxy" isn't an officially recognized psychological condition. It's a play on an official condition known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP). MSBP is a mental illness that's also sometimes called medical child abuse or factitious disorder imposed on others. It's...