Free Republic

Why should it fall to an American radio and television personality to solve the problems of Canadian socialized medicine? One poor woman in our neighbor up north recently turned to Canada’s MAID program (medical assistance in dying, or assisted suicide) because she could not get a referral for a needed surgery, and the pain had become more than she could bear. Over the past two days, TV and radio star Glenn Beck has been reaching out to assist Jolene Van Alstine of Saskatchewan to assist her. She needs surgery to remove her parathyroid gland. However, there’s no one available to...

Last month, I wrote about how Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) introduced a non-binding resolution, asking the House of Representatives to condemn socialism in the wake of New York City electing Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor. It was more theater than anything, but it was also a chance for the House to show the people of the United States — well, most of us anyway — that they stand in solidarity with us in wanting to keep socialism out of our country. It was the opportunity to show that they still support the American dream and values. Advertisement Only...

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Southeast Asia is being pummeled by unusually severe floods this year, as late-arriving storms and relentless rains wreak havoc that has caught many places off guard. Malaysia is still reeling from one its worst floods, which killed three and displaced thousands. Meanwhile, Vietnam and the Philippines have faced a year of punishing storms and floods that have left hundreds dead. What feels unprecedented is exactly what climate scientists expect: A new normal of punishing storms, floods and devastation. Atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the most on record in 2024. That “turbocharged” the climate,...

The authors of a study that examined climate change’s potential effect on the global economy said Wednesday that data errors led them to slightly overstate an expected drop in income over the next 25 years. The researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, writing in the journal Nature in 2024, had forecast a 19% drop in global income by 2050. Their revised analysis puts the figure at 17%. The authors also said in their original work that there was a 99% chance that, by midcentury, it would cost more to fix damage from climate change than it would...

The hunt for the assets of the former East Germany’s ruling party has the hallmarks of a thriller. There are dubious characters, bags of cash, and key witnesses who suddenly die. At its heart is the question: How do you stash away 6 billion marks?

ZURICH, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Switzerland on Sunday clearly rejected ​a proposed 50% tax on inherited ‌fortunes of 50 million Swiss francs ($62 million) or ‌more, public broadcaster SRF said in a first results estimate, with an expected 79% of votes against the plan. The proposal from the ⁠youth wing of ‌the leftist Social Democrats, or JUSOs, aimed to fund projects to ‍reduce the impact of climate change, was widely expected to fail, with over two-thirds of respondents ​against the proposed tax in recent polls. Bankers have ‌watched the vote closely, casting it as a litmus test of appetite for...

Americans should know we already gave socialism a chance. The only reason we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with lots of food is because the Pilgrims learned (the hard way) that socialism doesn’t work. When they came to America, they first tried sharing land. Gov. William Bradford decreed that each family would get an equal share of food, no matter how much they worked. The results were disastrous. Few Pilgrims worked hard, claiming “weakness and inability,” wrote Bradford. “Much was stolen.” The same plan in Jamestown led to starvation, the death of half the population, even cannibalism. Learning from their mistakes,...

Turning Point USA founder said in July that young Americans could start feeling like 'permanent renting class.' ... "How do we get more young people under the age of 35 to have equity in the system? Not the Democrat version of equity, where they want to have redistribution, but actually, are they paying a mortgage? Do they own stuff? Or are they permanent renters?" Kirk asked during a July 11 appearance on "Fox & Friends." "A permanent renting class in this country is the prerequisite, is the leading ingredient for radical politics that nobody wants to see," he continued. "We...

The pollution from food is sneaky. Because the apple sitting on your kitchen counter isn’t really causing any harm. But chances are good that you didn’t pick it from a tree in your backyard. It required land and water to grow, machines to harvest and process, packaging to ship, trucks to transport and often refrigerators to store. Much of that process releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That’s why the global food system makes up roughly a third of worldwide, human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, roughly a third of the U.S. food supply is lost or wasted without being...

Classrooms across the European Union are about to change. A new decision folds climate education into the EU’s 2025 climate plan, from kindergarten through the end of high school in all 27 member countries. Students will not just hear about distant ice melt or heat waves. They will learn how climate science, local impacts, and job skills fit together as part of the European Union’s official response to the climate crisis. For young children, future lessons are likely to connect local weather, food, and energy use to simple climate ideas, instead of treating the subject as a one off event...

Resolution, which passed the House 285-98, came hours before Trump's meeting with socialist NYC mayor-elect Zohran MamdaniNinety-eight House Democrats on Friday voted against a resolution "denouncing the horrors of socialism" that came just hours before President Donald Trump met with socialist New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. The resolution passed 285-98, with only 86 Democrats voting in favor. Two Democrats voted "present." No Republicans opposed the resolution.The measure states that "Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States," characterizing socialism as an ideology that "necessitates a concentration of power that...

“Numbnut” is derogatory American slang, sometimes used for humor, to mean a “slow-witted, unresponsive, or inept person.” But no humor exists in the fact New York City (NYC) voters, always on the edge of numbnut-osity, went over it by electing socialist/communist Zohran Mamdani mayor.A majority (50.4%) of NYC voters demonstrated unbelievable incomprehension, as would be expected from slow-witted, inept and—by choosing to ignore numerous red flags about Mamdani—unresponsive constituents. As the proverb goes, they will now have to “reap what you sow.”Mamdani’s campaign was a blank check of promises providing all sorts of things. These included free bus fare, government-run...

The House voted 285-98 on Friday to denounce the “horrors of socialism,” a sharp rebuke delivered just hours before President Donald Trump sits down with New York’s incoming democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Eighty-six Democrats crossed the aisle to back the resolution, while two voted present. Republicans were unified in support. Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders have blasted Mamdani’s victory in the nation’s largest city, casting him as the latest radical avatar of the Democratic Party. They’ve already signaled they plan to use him as a political battering ram heading into the 2026 midterms. Democrats brushed off the...

If heat-trapping pollution from burning coal, oil and gas continues unchecked, thousands of hazardous sites across the United States risk being flooded from sea level rise by the turn of the century, posing serious health risks to nearby communities, according to a new study. Researchers identified 5,500 sites that store, emit or handle sewage, trash, oil, gas and other hazards that could face coastal flooding by 2100, with much of the risk already locked in due to past emissions. But more than half the sites are projected to face flood risk much sooner — as soon as 2050. Low-income, communities...

Seattle's Mayor-elect Katie Wilson declared that "access to affordable, healthy food is a basic right. We cannot allow giant grocery chains to stomp all over our communities and close stores that will leave behind food deserts. Together, we can build a Seattle where fresh food is for everyone, not just for those who can afford it. Food deserts are not natural, supermarkets create them when they abandon our communities. We need to require these food vendors to give 90 days advance notice for mass layoffs and fair severance pay for laid off workers." "If too many privately owned food vendors...

Britons' anxiety about climate change plays a big role in many mental health struggles among the country's youth and can trigger guilt about having children, a new report has claimed. The report by the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) also suggests that yoga and visiting "climate cafés" could help stave off this "eco-anxiety" and build emotional resilience in times of change. "An awareness of climate and environmental change can also lead to emotional or psychological responses, such as eco-anxiety," it reads, defining the term as distress caused by the threat of climate change. The authors also reference "solastalgia," which...

Rodrigo Paz, the centrist senator who won the presidential election in Bolivia last month, was sworn in this weekend and immediately set to work to undo the policies of 20 years of nearly-uninterrupted socialist rule... ...Under the socialist rule of Evo Morales, Bolivia saw its energy industry nationalized and generous fuel subsidies paid out for years. These policies resulted in plunging natural gas production, dwindling foreign exchange reserves, a massive economic crisis, and fuel shortages as cheaper fuel in Bolivia encouraged smuggling en masse to neighboring South American countries. The universal fuel subsidy has depleted Bolivia’s U.S. dollar reserves, thus...

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — The world’s climate leaders are conceding that Earth’s warming will shoot past a hard limit they set a decade ago in hopes of keeping the planet out of a danger zone. But they’re not conceding defeat. United Nations officials, scientists, and analysts are pinning their hopes on eventually forcing global temperatures back below the red line they set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which sought to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since preindustrial times. Busting that limit and then coming back down is called “overshoot.” In the way climate science uses the term,...

SEATTLE — Seattle's new Mayor-elect Katie Wilson is addressing the public regarding her election and upcoming role as mayor on Thursday afternoon. After thanking her family, campaign team, volunteers, and canvassers, Wilson criticized the large amounts of money poured into her opponents' campaigns. "They might have the money, we had the people," Wilson triumphantly continued. "The working people of our city are tired. They are ready for something new, something more hopeful and just and equitable.” Wilson also listed what she wants to achieve as mayor. "I want everyone in this great city of ours to have a roof over...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Hundreds of top economists and other experts, including former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, called on Friday for the world to set up an independent international panel on income and wealth inequality. The call in an open letter came before the Group of 20 summit in South Africa next weekend, when a report on global inequality chaired by Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz is due to be presented to world leaders. That report, which was released this month, said that the world is facing an inequality emergency as well as a climate emergency,...