Free Republic

For years, President Donald Trump blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles. Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents — from judges to educators — as threats to American identity, culture and values.Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the White House election.“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders Saturday by announcing that he wants to retire at the end of the year. Buffett said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board that Greg Abel should become CEO at the end of the year. “I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said. Abel has been Buffett’s designated successor for years, and he already manages all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses. But it was always assumed he wouldn’t take over until after Buffett’s death....

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation to determine if toothpaste that contains fluoride is being illegally marketed to kids. While the recommended dosage of toothpaste says no more than a pea-sized smear or a drop the size of a kernel of rice should be used, Paxton says toothpaste manufacturers continue to flavor their products and deceptively market them in ways that encourage kids to ingest more than the safe and recommended amount of fluoride toothpaste. Now the attorney general wants to know if kids are ingesting too much fluoride based on how toothpaste is advertised to children. Toothpaste...

Buffett had largely avoided commenting on politics during the afternoon part of the annual meetings Q&A and seemed reluctant to directly address a question on what he thought about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. What Buffett did say was Congress isn’t doing its job to reduce the fiscal deficit. “We are doing something that is unsustainable,” he said. Buffett said the gap between revenue and spending was about twice as large as what can be maintained and that the more the gap widens, the more risk of it...

DOGE has referred 57 cases of potential voter fraud to the U.S. Justice Department ... Antonio Gracias noted that the individuals were "resident aliens who were registered to vote ... Musk, the hard-charging business tycoon who has been spearheading the DOGE initiative, has indicated that he plans to spend less time on the effort going forward. "Not stepping down, just reducing time allocation now that @DOGE is established ... "The federal government is a gigantic beast — very complicated — and so if you’re trying to figure out how to stop waste and fraud, you’ve got to map the territory,"...

When Congress passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in March 2021, it allocated $350 billion in assistance to state and local governments – providing the largest infusion of cash to local governments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For New Orleans, that money represented a desperately needed lifeline. The city had been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. It was an early hotspot for the virus. And Black residents, who comprise about 60% of the city’s population, were disproportionately impacted, accounting for more than 75% of COVID deaths in the first few months of the pandemic. As...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia will return to the national spotlight when the Senate votes on a resolution calling for a report on his detention in El Salvador. In the coming weeks, the Senate will take up a Democratic resolution that would require the Trump administration to detail the human rights record of El Salvador, including its treatment of inmates in the megaprison where Abrego Garcia, a mistakenly deported illegal immigrant, was briefly detained.

With the new mineral rights deal between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, President Donald Trump fulfilled his pledge to hold Ukraine financially accountable for the billions of dollars that has already been provided in military assistance. This now opens a new avenue for the U.S. to provide weaponry to the country without using any taxpayer funds. Following months of discussions, the deal was signed on Wednesday. It established a common investment fund to which both countries will contribute, including through the sale of mineral rights, oil, and gas licenses in Ukraine — with a 50/50 profit split. The agreement states that...

An emotional Prince Harry says he feels "devastated" after losing a legal battle over security during visits to the UK, as ITV News' Royal Editor Chris Ship reports Prince Harry has called for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to intervene after losing a Court of Appeal challenge over his security arrangements while in the UK. The Prince made the remarks in an interview with the BBC, where he also revealed his father, King Charles, "no longer speaks to him" over the row - which he described as a "family dispute". On Friday, the Prince lost his attempt to overturn the...

Friday, during Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) discussed the difficulty of working with people on the other side of the aisle when their political beliefs and ambitions are not compatible with reality. The Oklahoma Republican said the hurdles included Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) beliefs in socialism and Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) presidential ambitions. “Now, the delusion among the leading Democratic Party is almost hard to believe,” host Sean Hannity said. “Why can’t they just be honest with the American people? I don’t know. That would be refreshing. Here to help answer that...

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a prominent populist congresswoman and Trump-ally, voiced concerns in a long Friday post on X about the state of the Trump administration, criticizing the current position of the administration on Iran, Ukraine, as well as a host of domestic issues. “I campaigned for no more foreign wars,” Greene wrote. “And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with Iran.” Greene was also highly critical of the so-called “Minerals Deal” between the U.S. and Ukraine, opining: And on top of that, now we are told that we have signed a deal for mineral...

College graduates are calling their degrees worthless. According to new data from Indeed, piling student loans and fears of AI reshaping the workplace are to blame. While experts say higher education is still important, Gen Z should constantly prioritize “upgrading their toolkit” to be successful. College is often advertised as the best four years of one’s life, but many Americans now have regrets.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Ukraine will not adhere to a three-day cease-fire proposed by Russia, saying such a short truce would not help in negotiations for a lasting peace. The Russian counteroffer of a three-day cease-fire covering the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, an important political holiday in Russia, was merely a “theatrical show,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv. Mr. Zelensky said Saturday that Russia’s offer was also intended to “create a soft atmosphere of an exit from isolation” for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and to assuage security worries of...

A woman has died in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki after a bomb she was carrying exploded in her hands. The 38-year-old woman was apparently carrying the bomb to place it outside a nearby bank at around 5am on Saturday, police said. Several storefronts and vehicles were damaged by the explosion. Police said the woman had a criminal record related to drugs and prostitution and had been involved in at least one robbery and thefts in the past. The Greek police’s division for organised crime was investigating the incident while authorities were also looking into whether the woman might...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher criticized and mocked Republicans and stated that they lied about raising taxes on the wealthy and said that raising taxes on the rich “never really happens” and responded to the argument that he could just voluntarily pay more in taxes himself if he wants to and no one will stop him from doing that by saying, “that’s not going to happen.” While discussing the budget proposal from the Trump administration from earlier in the day, Maher said that the administration is increasing the budget for the Defense Department in their...

The Trump administration has accused Berlin of acting in a tyrannical manner after a top intelligence agency officially branded the populist AfD party as an “extremist” group over its stance against mass migration, paving the way for more government spying against the right-wing party.The supposedly independent Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) — which reports directly to the Interior Ministry of the elected civilian government — ruled on Friday that the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is a “right-wing extremist” organisation. The classification will allow for increased state surveillance of the anti-mass migration party, including observing its meetings...

The issue of pharmaceuticals is at the forefront of reworking the global trade order, making it arguably the telltale one among all industries, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Newsmax."Like pharmaceuticals, for a minute, you realize the United States of America pays for drugs, and the rest of the world free rides," Lutnick told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" in an exclusive sit-down Wednesday."You know how you can understand the rest of the world? We pay for the drug, and they pay the copay."They're paying like the $10, $20, $30."America is the "inventor" of everything in the world, but it has...

Aleksandar Vucic cut short his visit to the United States amid health issuesMOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic remains at a military hospital, and the details about his health will be available in the next few days, a source told TASS. "He is at a military hospital. The details about his condition will be known in the next few days," the source shared. Earlier, Vucic cut short his visit to the United States amid health issues and returned to Belgrade where he sought assistance at the Military Hospital. The Serbian leader earlier shared plans to attend the Victory...

A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter flying through restricted Washington, D.C. airspace on Thursday triggered urgent evasive maneuvers by two commercial jets inbound to Reagan National Airport. An American Airlines jet collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft. Just four months after the deadly incident, it was reported that an Army chopper deviated from its approved flight path, veering around the Pentagon instead of heading directly to the helipad, according to a Friday email from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Assistant Administrator Chris Senn ... The unexpected...

Navy Secretary John Phelan says that the "speed, range and survivability of hypersonic weapons are key to integrated deterrence" for the U.S. The Navy successfully flight tested a "conventional hypersonic missile" that was launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, according to the U.S. Defense Department on Friday. "The test marked the first launch of the Conventional Prompt Strike capability, using the Navy's cold-gas launch approach that will be used in Navy sea-based platform hypersomics," said a news reelase from the agency. Navy Secretary John Phelan said that the "speed, range and survivability of hypersonic weapons are key...