Free Republic

President Trump is being misled into a regime-change war close to home. Few Americans nowadays find much to celebrate in the Iraq War or the intervention that overthrew Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Regimes were successfully changed both times, but what came after the dictators’ downfall was civil war, regional instability and mass-migration flows that exported many of those nations’ troubles to their neighbors. Now the Trump administration wants to do to Venezuela’s despot, Nicolás Maduro, what George W. Bush did to Saddam Hussein and Barack Obama did to Gaddafi. That will predictably do to the Americas – including the US –...

I'm old enough to remember when the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) passed. It was 2010, and I had just joined Twitter the previous fall while I was on maternity leave following the birth of my second son. That means I recall exactly how Obamacare's passage unfolded. It was forced on an unwilling American people by the Democrats, who shoved it through Congress without a single Republican vote. Many people, myself included, warned it was a bait-and-switch scheme that wouldn't lower healthcare costs but would usher in single-payer socialized medicine. Now that we're facing another negotiation on Obamacare subsidies, it's time...

Leaders and activists say they are feeling the weight of the moment, after Australia's first treaty with Aboriginal people was signed and formalised as law today. Victoria's treaty has become Australia's first modern treaty agreement with the country's Indigenous owners, in a move labelled "historic" by the United Nations human rights chief. Yiman and Ghangulu man man Mick Gooda, who has spent decades advocating for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, said he was "so happy and pleased" for the people of Victoria. Indigenous man wearing a navy shirt and glasses. Mick Gooda says the Victorian treaty...

The House Oversight Committee released some Jeffrey Epstein emails this morning, and, sure enough, Donald Trump is in the Epstein Files. Like a malignant ghost that haunts the President’s dreams, Epstein has risen from the great beyond to point his bony finger at Donald Trump, saying, “it was you all along.” Or has he? In an April 2, 2011 message to his associate and fixer Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.” Then, the word VICTIM appears in a black box, followed by “he has never once been mentioned. police...

WASHINGTON — A provision tucked into the funding package the Senate passed Monday night as part of a bipartisan deal to reopen the government would allow senators to sue the federal government for potentially millions of dollars if their data is obtained without notifying them. The legislative language would uniquely benefit eight Republican senators who were recently found to have had their phone records — but not the contents of their calls or messages — accessed as a part of the investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S....

The House on Wednesday passed a funding bill that will end the government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, by a margin of 222-209. President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign the bill later Wednesday. The legislation will fund the government through Jan. 30 and provide funding for some government agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The police have warned of a new method that scammers are deploying to fraudulently open accounts with payment service providers (PSPs) — using digitally modified copies of Singapore identity cards (IC). Scammers would use a softcopy of a IC and use digital tools to replace the original facial image on that copy with another facial image. They would then submit the doctored copy online to PSPs to set up payment service account. When PSPs conduct mandatory facial liveness checks, the scammers would then instruct an accomplice who resembles the doctored image to undergo the checks. -Advertisement- The police said some...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Can You See Me Now?” Sgt. Trevor Nicholas Tate, 6th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, provides roadside security during exercise Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Alaska 23-02 in the Yukon Training Area, Alaska. (Army photo/John Pennell) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. This is how you handle terrorists! Students with the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program from Tolleson High School, Arizona,...

A court in Vietnam handed jail sentences on Wednesday (Nov 12) to two former local officials who wagered millions of dollars under false foreign names, in a closely-watched gambling trial, state media reported. The pair were part of an illegal gambling ring run by South Koreans out of a swanky Hanoi hotel and comprising more than 140 people, prosecutors had alleged. The outfit was said to include former government and communist party officials, entertainers and businesspeople who placed bets totalling more than US$106 million. The slot, roulette and baccarat machines at the gilded King Club in the capital's five-star Pullman...

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman defended his voting record and addressed the criticism he's received from some in his own party for meeting and sometimes voting with President Trump. "I vote a 91% Democratic line, and if Democrats have a problem with somebody that votes 91% of the same times as you are, more than nine out of 10 times, then maybe our party has a bigger problem," he said in an interview that aired Wednesday on "CBS Mornings." Fetterman voted with Republicans over a dozen times to fund the government and end the government shutdown while most Senate Democrats held...

The world wants an American climate leader, and Gavin Newsom is happy to play the part — even if the country he represents isn’t quite ready to follow.BELÉM, Brazil — Gavin Newsom can’t get out of a meeting or a talk at the international climate talks here without being swarmed by reporters and diplomats eager for a quote, a handshake, a photo.On a tour Tuesday of a cultural center with Gov. Helder Barbalho, the leader of the Brazilian state hosting the talks, a passerby recognized them both. “There’s the governor,” he exclaimed. “And there’s the California governor.” Later in the...

A key Atlantic current could be pushed to the brink of collapse within decades, supposedly ushering in a new ice age and dramatically raising sea levels, climate scientists have claimed in a controversial new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. The apocalyptic predictions came as a result of a collaboration between researchers at the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and the University of California, San Diego — weeks after one-time climate alarmist Bill Gates publicly downplayed the impact of temperature fluctuations on the planet.

A federal judge ordered the release of more than 600 people arrested as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Illinois, according to CNN affiliate WLS, dealing a blow to federal efforts to detain and deport as many undocumented people as possible. US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings on Wednesday morning sided with attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center and the ACLU. The plaintiffs alleged more than 3,000 people were arrested between June and October in “Operation Midway Blitz.” Now, 615 of those arrested must be granted bond by noon on November 21, according to the ruling, which applies...

Things are going from bad to worse for Chuck Schumer.Leading congressional Democrats thought they had it made. Force a government shutdown, sabotage President Donald Trump’s agenda – at least for a time – and then extort their Republican opponents on Capitol Hill for all kinds of cash to fund their pet projects. Then Sunday (Nov. 9) rolled around, and seven Senate Democrats and one Independent voted with Republicans to push through a temporary government funding bill. That sets up a fight on the House floor, but the 41-day-old shutdown is, for all intents and purposes, over.Democrats got nothing but a...

“ Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro would be open to leaving power in exchange for amnesty for him and his lieutenants, the lifting of the bounties on his head and a comfortable exile, according to a new report. In this context, one of the people who have dealings with Caracas opened the door to the negotiated exit: "If there is enough pressure, and if there is enough candy in the dish," the person said. "Everything is on the table with Maduro."

It’s not too late for Ballerini or the countless other women dealing with the same dilemma to get hitched, settle down in the suburbs, and start a family. Doing so, however, requires sacrifice. Kelsea Ballerini is suffering from a broken heart. The 32-year-old’s troubles do not necessarily stem from an off-again, on-again relationship with beau Chase Stokes, though that probably plays a role. Rather, Ballerini’s obvious emotional ache comes from a deep longing to be a wife and mother.Ballerini’s real-time struggle between the girl boss identity she bought into at just 19 years-old and the reality that it’s left her...

Ukraine's energy and justice ministers have resigned in the wake of a major investigation into corruption in the country's energy sector. President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Energy Minister Svitlana Grynchuk and Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko's removal on Wednesday. On Monday anti-corruption bodies accused several people of orchestrating a embezzlement scheme in the energy sector worth about $100m (£76m), including at the national nuclear operator Enerhoatom. Some of those implicated in the scandal are - or have been - close associates of Zelensky's. The allegation is that Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and other key ministers and officials received payments from contractors...

If Good News had a patron saint, it would be the Swedish professor of global health Hans Rosling.Rosling, who died in 2017, was a wizard at using data and storytelling to challenge misconceptions around global development and progress. With statistics in hand, Rosling could convince the most determined pessimist that the world was, on balance, getting better. And there’s no better example of the Rosling touch than a TED talk he gave in 2010 called “The Magic Washing Machine.” “Laundry day” used to actually mean an entire day of soaking clothes, heating water, hauling, scrubbing, rinsing, wringing, and hanging. But...

Milei faces a daunting challenge: to lead profound change while maintaining public support. Only time will tell whether he is up to the task.‍On Sunday, October 26th, President Javier Milei received a resounding show of support from the Argentine people. Nobody — not even Milei’s inner circle — thought a win was possible. Despite the restored macroeconomic order, falling inflation, and a stronger peso, ordinary people continue to struggle in their daily lives. The warning signs were there: just a month earlier, on September 7th, Milei’s party La Libertad Avanza suffered a disastrous loss in Buenos Aires Province, trailing Axel...

Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, described a chaotic scene at Monday night's "Turning Point USA" event in Berkeley, California. "They say our words are violence, but their actual violence is mostly peaceful," Kolvet told FNC's Jesse Waters. "They said in their flyers that we were inciting violence just by being on campus and hosting an event with Rob Schneider, a comedian and actor." ANDREW KOLVET: It seems like it was a coordinated attack on a peaceful event. And you can’t make this stuff up. As you said in your lead-up, they said in their flyers...