Free Republic

The Trump administration has so far announced 43 equity stakes in firms producing everything from minerals to semiconductors, 36 of which were negotiated without explicit legal authority — and more are yet to come. The administration may be negotiating even more stakes under the radar, since SEC filings for unrelated deals mention the possibility of warrants. Unwinding the administration’s investments would prove legally and politically difficult — but Democrats likely won’t want to, at least not right away. They’re already weighing how to use equity stakes for their own ends, signaling that Trump’s government intervention in the private sector may...

"To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability." It ends in bankruptcy every time! When immigration enforcement ramped up in Minneapolis earlier this year, owner Dylan Alverson rebranded the restaurant as "Post Modern Times." He took prices off the menu and declared he would feed anyone who walked in the door, whether they could pay or not. Well, almost anyone. Federal agents were explicitly unwelcome. The stunt made national news. Donations poured in from around the world. For six months, the restaurant operated as a pay-what-you-can (or pay-nothing-at-all) sanctuary in Minneapolis. But as it turns out,...

When Rexnord moved its Indianapolis ball-bearing plant to Mexico, John Feltner lost a $25-an-hour union job, the second factory job he had lost in a decade. Around Christmas of 2017, a hospital offered him maintenance work at $18 an hour. When a former boss offered him a union job at a cornstarch plant paying 20% more, John refused. “I don’t see it crumbling underneath me like Rexnord,” he told The Indianapolis Star. John had already been burned twice, and a hospital, he figured, wasn’t going anywhere. Three decades of deindustrialization had taught him and millions like him to take the...

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Modern Times Café once served free food to the community as federal immigration agents flooded Minneapolis. Now, the restaurant is closing by the end of the year. "For the last 6 years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist. I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is. Because of this, we have made the choice to close at the end of the year. This has been an incredibly difficult decision and one that did not come lightly. I announce this decision now, with...

Americans who were asked for their opinions of socialism by Fox News Digital offered sharply different interpretations of the ideology, with some embracing its promises of economic equality while others expressed strong reservations about government control over the means of production. Fox News Digital took to the streets of Maine's largest city, a progressive bastion, to talk to residents about their definitions of socialism and how far they would be willing to go to embrace its ideals. The topic of socialism has featured prominently in campaign coverage during this midterm election cycle, as candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of...

Democrat nominee for the Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, in a nationally televised news program, described ‘Medicare for All’ as “…guaranteed health insurance from cradle to the moment you pass away. It comes without premiums or co-pays or deductibles. It guarantees you care when you need it. This is a level of security we have never known in the United States.” This is a slick snake oil salesman trying to convince you that there is a good fairy bringing you utopia for nothing. El-Sayed and many others ignore key important issues. What does it cost, and how do we pay...

Everybody with common sense should vote Republican in November! If you don't believe me, just listen to this.. No Socialist/Communist!! https://x.com/Jessie63335515/status/2107945260034785312?

Socialism is not always my wheelhouse. I think progressivism is the greatest threat that the U.S. has ever faced, not socialism. However that does not mean that I am not aware of the similar ideologies and have opinions of them. So it is with Socialism and its Revolutionary as well as Evolutionary variants. The interesting thing about Evolutionary Socialism is that most people refuse to acknowledge its existence, just like people don't pay much attention to progressivism. Which is weird because arguably the most successful socialists in history are the British Fabians who promise to make haste slowly. An interest...

"Tell me who Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was," Yura, a character in Vladimir Sorokin's short story "The Red Pyramid," asks a man who mysteriously appears at a train station. The stranger responds, "The man who called forth the pyramid of the red roar." The pyramid, the man continues, is the "source of the endless red roar." Visible to a select few, it "emits a different kind of sound wave" in order to "infect the world to destroy mankind's intrinsic structure." Sorokin, a modern Russian writer, who in this short story takes on the subject of communism and its legacy in modern...

This is long, but I think it is important. We are fighting Leftists in the government and media who exclaim the virtues of Socialism, but we forget that there are legions of young people that the Left has been mercilessly (and without consequence to them) indoctrinating young people for decades without any countervailing information. This encounter I detail in this thread shows just how much and how prevalent this is. It was (for me) my first chance to drill down on young people to see just how deep and fervent their indoctrinated beliefs are. Last Saturday we had a festival...

LA’s “mansion tax,” sold to Angelenos as a way to tax the rich and boost housing, has instead blocked the building of 9,100 homes, wiped out 16,650 full-time construction jobs and cost $452 million in revenue. A damning new report says the tax, officially known as United to House LA, or ULA — has had a negative impact on the city’s high-end and multi-family real estate markets and collected less than half what it was expected to generate to tackle the city’s housing crisis. The ULA was expected to raise about $900 million a year, or $2.7 billion over its...

President Donald Trump is once again promising Americans $5,000 checks if Republicans retain control of Congress, repeating a pledge he first made last month as the midterm elections enter their final stretch. At the same time, the administration is already sending out much smaller federal payments, including $90 payments to millions of eligible Medicare beneficiaries and $500 refunds to certain Affordable Care Act customers. That has created an unusual mix of real payments, campaign promises and growing questions about what Americans could actually receive.The distinction matters. While the $90 and $500 programs are already funded and underway, the proposed $5,000...

Far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered an impassioned definition of socialism this week — one critics say rivals state-controlled totalitarianism — claiming in a podcast interview that it’s the job of the government to ensure the masses have “whatever you need.” “Socialism, to me, it means that you will have whatever you need to live a dignified life and that it is the government’s job to deliver on that,” Hizzoner told comedian podcaster Theo Von on Thursday when asked to define the political and economic system he’s pushing on the city. “It’s a belief that you shouldn’t live...

Understand this election is not lost by a long, shot. We are being gaslighted with psyops polls and “just moved 3 Senate seat from leans Republican to toss up,” announcements. In July Democrat Senator Slotkin let the mask slip by saying that passing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would make it more difficult for Democrats to win elections. Speaking to Indiana Democrats, she said, “[The SAVE Act] would literally allow this administration to rig our democracy so that it would be hard for any Democrat in any state to win any election.” ANY DEMOCRAT IN ANY STATE –...

Speaking of South America, there’s a freedom revolution going on down there that is liberating and pro-growth. Many of our neighbors to the south are shrinking governments, opening markets, and prioritizing growth and stability. Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia are governed by conservative leaders. Ironically, this is all happening as the Left in America moves toward South Americanesque socialist policies. Brazil, with its 214 million people, will decide next month if they will join this wave. Incumbent Lula da Silva, the “last man standing” among South America’s leftist leaders, is tied in polls with Flavio Bolsonaro, the...

Yes, the gas prices are high, but I live in California, where gas prices are always going to be higher than in the rest of the country. I don't blame President Trump, nor do I blame the conflict in Iran. If Iran wasn't trying to blow us up in a nuclear holocaust, then there would have been no reason for the United States to attack them! California shut down two refineries, and they add taxes and fees on top of more taxes and fees. Don’t scream at Trump, blue state residents. Blame your own incompetent state governments! Am I happy...

Adding stay-at-home parents to the eligibility list for federal child care subsidies would not require additional funding. It would simply reshuffle who receives subsidies. If every state implemented the administration’s plan and prioritized the newly eligible parents, our simulation estimates that roughly 195,000 children’s subsidies would move from single-parent households that qualify through work to households that qualify because one member is not working. This scenario is politically and legally unlikely. But it illustrates how the proposal treats federal welfare as a tool for winning the culture war without regard for the broader economic damage caused by the policy change.

Young voters are financially drowning — and the life raft the Democratic Socialists of America is throwing them is an anchor in disguise. If Americans don’t see past this facade, they’ll be sinking even faster. ========= Young voters are right that the system is failing them. They’re wrong, though, about which system it is. What they’ve experienced isn’t free-market capitalism at all — it’s a quasi-socialist economy that’s let government displace the market in precisely the spending categories that have become least affordable. Turning further toward socialism means embracing the anchor that’s already weighing them down. Just look at where...

Friday on FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) rebuked the creep of socialism into American politics. He highlighted its failures and warned against it coming to the United States. “[Y]ou had interesting comments about socialism recently,” host Sean Hannity said. “If you had to break it down and explain it because that’s what’s on the ballot this year, what do you tell people?” Kemmedy replied, “Well, Sean, I listen to these new leaders of the Democratic Party. Mayor Mamdani, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, Dr. El-Sayed in Michigan, and when I listen to them, they’re all socialists. When I listen to them, it’s...

Fifty-nine percent of Democrats now call themselves supporters of the Democratic Socialists of America. That’s scary because the stated goals of the DSA are not some bloated European welfare state but a radical overhaul of American society. It’s an overhaul that would eventually cost us both our economic and democratic freedoms. A new Quinnipiac poll did not sugarcoat wording to ask about “fairness” instead of socialism or whether people were “open-minded” to so-called “democratic socialist” policies. It directly asked, “On political matters, do you consider yourself a supporter of the Democratic Socialists of America, or not?” Twenty-six percent of those...