Free Republic

After a little more than 100 days in office, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has a new catch phrase: "pothole politics." The new rallying cry is not just about the 102,000 potholes the city has filled since Mamdani took office, but also is meant to suggest that socialists can solve small problems at the street level, not just advocate for big revolutionary ideological change. So what do New Yorkers think of the approach? Some call it a smart strategy, while others view it as a distraction or a return to "broken windows" politics.

The United States is on track for what economists call the “great wealth transfer,” with an estimated $72.6 trillion expected to pass from older generations to younger heirs over the coming decades. On paper, that should create one of the largest generational financial shifts in history. But there’s a growing threat quietly eating away at that future wealth: long-term care costs.For most families, the reality is blunt. The cost of caring for aging parents or spouses is so high that it is erasing decades of savings, destroying home equity, and in many cases, forcing middle-class households into financial decline.And according...

Being told you have high cholesterol can feel like a verdict: start taking a statin or risk a heart attack or stroke. Recent studies, however, suggest that high cholesterol is not as uniformly harmful as once thought. However, the message has swung hard in the other direction on social media, where claims range from “high cholesterol might save your life” to “high cholesterol is the secret to living to 100-plus.” So, is high cholesterol really “good” or “bad”? The reality is more nuanced than either extreme suggests. The more useful question may not be whether high cholesterol is harmful, but...

…Publicly reported numbers point to a wide range. Media interviews with a crowd-rental CEO describe individual participant compensation in the low hundreds of dollars per person—often $100–$300 for simple roles, with higher pay for longer hours, bad weather, or early morning calls. Request volume, especially in Washington, D.C., has spiked during high-stakes political moments, which can drive prices higher during peak periods.Broader coverage has captured tactical cases where participants were paid modest flat fees. Poynter summarized reporting in which people received $60 to attend local meetings, with $200 for a speaking role, showing how “appearance of support” payments can be...

Journalists Nick Shirley and Jon Fetherston join 'Saturday in America' to discuss Democratic efforts to criminalize investigative journalism and allegations of fraud across the country.

A lawless mob wreaked fiery havoc on a Queens intersection during a late-night car takeover as local lawmakers demand a crackdown on these unhinged meetups. Shocking video shows reckless drivers whipping around the intersection at 69th Street and Eliot Avenue in Queens early Saturday morning. Over 100 vehicles clogged up the roads along the Maspeth-Middle Village border. A man appeared to wave a Palestinian flag as he burned rubber, just narrowly missing those standing around the car while it made donuts around a massive street blaze. Flames arose from the street as hordes of brazen participants filmed the dangerous drivers...

A Kanye West concert in Poland has been cancelled following government pressure and condemnation over a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments by the US rapper, the BBC reported on Friday. West, who now goes by the name Ye, was scheduled to appear at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów on June 19, his first performance in Poland for 15 years, but the venue said on Friday it would now not take place "due to formal and legal reasons". Marta Cienkowska, Poland's culture and heritage minister, had described the decision to book West as "unacceptable". West has faced repeated backlash...

The homelessness charity Centrepoint has said it will cut ties with its celebrity ambassador Sharon Osbourne after she expressed support for a far-right rally being organised by Tommy Robinson. The charity, of which the Prince of Wales is patron, has been moved to distance itself from comments made by Osbourne. The TV personality indicated this week that she would be attending an event organised in London by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. On an Instagram post about the “unite the kingdom” rally, Osbourne’s official account left a comment saying: “See you at the march.” In response, Centrepoint, which...

U.S. homicide patterns reflect a stark racial disparity, with violent crime disproportionately affecting white victims in black-on-white cases. Mugshot of Renotta Renee Seltzer (Escambia County Sheriff’s Office). My longtime VDARE.com colleague Kenn Gividen began his recent monthly roundup of America’s ongoing black-on-white Holocaust™ (27 dead reported in March 2026) with the news that the gay mayor of Providence, RI, had forced the removal, on the grounds that it was “divisive”—i.e., embarrassing to Democrats—of a mural of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old blonde Ukrainian murdered by a black repeat offender in August 2025. (Since Kenn posted, North Carolina authorities have found the...

Are women okay? The answer, clearly, is no. Women are not okay. The young ones, especially. This week, Britain’s New Statesman introduced us to “the Angry Young Women,” an expanding coven of radical, unstable, men-hating, activist women. This is maybe the first time a mainstream outlet in the UK has acknowledged the precipitous leftward drift of young women and the major effects it’s having on British society: on politics, culture, relations between the sexes—pretty much everything you can think of, really. Whether it’s Israel’s war in Gaza, the “Climate Crisis,” the Patriarchy, racism, or the prospect of a Reform government...

Reading the news today got me to thinking about various things. Such as: *If European countries are too afraid of their rapidly growing Muslim populations to act in defense of their own interests—and that of the majority of their citizens-- as regards the world's greatest state sponsor of terror, Iran, they are already defeated. The only question is, have they willingly, treasonously, and knowingly surrendered, or are they tragically unaware of their own impending demise. My educated guess is the former. More’s the pity. *I want to say something very clearly, and with great specificity: If today’s Democrats were...

From Wikimedia Commons: A market scene on the Grand Place in Brussels (unknown artist, ca. 1670)Modern Brussels narrates the tragedy of a continent in terminal decline. Once a monument to European civilization—listing such landmarks as the medieval Grand-Place, the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, the neoclassical Palais de Justice—it has been transmogrified into a laboratory of “super-diversity,” a doomsday phenomenon whose presiding ideology is this: abolition of the Christian nation-state. Hosting representatives of 184 nationalities, the city does not merely reflect globalization; it weaponizes it. Beneath the bureaucratic gloss of the EU’s institutions lies a parallel reality of...

It either demonstrates a deep misunderstanding of facts or is a deliberate action to accelerate the decline of a once-great city. The Laws of Economics and statistics on the grocery industry clearly show that there is no way, except through subsidies that shift costs onto taxpayers, for Mamdani’s plan for city-run grocery stores to reduce food costs for the city’s residents. The grocery business is not some gold mine of hidden profits waiting to be tapped. It is one of the most competitive, tightly run industries in this country, with an extremely low profit margin. Companies such as Kroger, Walmart,...

Leaders of the Air National Guard argued that the Air Force's readiness was woefully inadequate... "The United States Air Force is the oldest, the smallest, and the least ready in its 78-year history," the letter, which was obtained by Air and Space Forces Magazine, read. To rectify the historic deficiency, military leaders are requesting between 72 and 100 new fighter jets across the Air Force's active duty, reserve and guard corps. Specifically, the adjutants generals — the leader of the National Guard in their respective state — are requesting at least 48 new F-35s and 24 new F-15EXs. The letter...

Ananlilia Mejia’s decisive win in the seat formerly held by New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill should send political shockwaves. Amidst the ongoing conflict in Iran, a major political event took place in the United States on April 16, 2026, that deserves more attention and scrutiny than the mainstream media will likely devote to it. The event to which I refer to is the victory of Analilia Mejia in the New Jersey special election for congressional district 11. Mejia’s decisive win in the seat formerly held by New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill should send political shockwaves because I think it is...

Multiple ambulances set on fire in London during 'antisemitic arson attack,' officials say Metropolitan Police said on Monday, March 23, 2026, that four ambulances were set on fire in the Golders Green area of north London.. Police in London are on the hunt Wednesday for two masked suspects behind an attempted arson attack on a synagogue that is being treated as an "antisemitic hate crime." ... British prosecutors earlier this month charged three suspects — ages 17, 19 and 20 — in an alleged arson attack targeting Jewish community ambulances in north London. The March 23 incident unfolded at around...

Some conservative commentators accused CBS’s "60 Minutes" of airing a segment featuring three "left-wing" cardinals who criticized the Trump administration’s immigration and Iran policies. Father Gerald Murray and author Robert Royal joined Raymond Arroyo on "The Prayerful Posse" to discuss whether the situation was meant to spark a conflict between President Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. "The three of them are billed as so-called influential, but none of them hold offices in the U.S. Bishops' Conference, and they have never been elected," Royal said. He compared the group to "The Squad" in U.S. politics, calling them "a very definite...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and first lady Rama Duwaji have been invited to the Met Gala — but won’t be attending, sources tell Page Six. New York City’s mayor is traditionally invited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the lavish event every year, but we’re told that Mamdani, 34, won’t be joining Condé Nast’s Anna Wintour and her coterie of celeb guests on Monday, May 4. “He’s not coming,” said a source. “And it would be foolish if he did … can you imagine? It goes against everything he believes in.” Indeed, the event is being financially subsidized by Amazon...

While the victors celebrate, the European Union moves to tighten its grip on Péter Magyar’s incoming government. Without Washington’s support, Budapest will have a hard time avoiding being overwhelmed by Brussels’s “friendly embrace.” The Red Pill of RealityHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party were unexpectedly defeated in the April 12 parliamentary elections. Supporters of Péter Magyar’s Tisza party are celebrating their victory, having received nods of approval and handshakes from Brussels and many other European capitals. Eurocrats are rushing to declare the end of the “Orbán era.” However, Tisza did not win because its platform was more...

Governor Abbott is dead serious about sanctuary cities. First, he signed a law back in 2017 making sanctuary cities illegal. He is back reminding Houston that there are consequences when you don’t work with ICE or don’t obey the law he signed. Check this out: Millions of dollars in public safety funding have been frozen for Houston following a recent change in the city’s immigration policy, according to city officials. Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s office confirmed the update to ABC13 on Tuesday, saying the state had froze [sic] nearly $115 million in public safety funding. During a meeting, Whitmire added...