Free Republic

President Donald Trump took the globalist elites to task at the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos, Switzerland, delivering a bold, unapologetic speech that championed his “America First” agenda.Speaking remotely, Trump minced no words in criticizing NATO allies for their lackluster defense spending, challenging multinational corporations to invest in the U.S., and calling out Bank of America’s discrimination against conservatives.Trump’s speech, which came just days after his historic re-election, was a full-throttle repudiation of the disastrous policies of the Biden regime.Trump boldly confronted the globalists, declaring that their agenda is coming to an end. He announced that foreign aid...

Have you ever looked at a bath and thought “Nah, not today!”? Well, you are not alone, as bathing has been a very up-and-down trend across history and from culture to culture. Ancient Rome’s public baths could be a grand affair, with all classes of Roman society taking frequent hot soaks. This contrasts with people in early-modern Europe who avoided clean water altogether for fear that it caused illnesses. Then there are more recent times, when having baths and showers in the house is basically considered essential. These different trends raise the important question: what happens when humans decide not...

The width and color of tree rings provides an extraordinary glimpse into a tree's history. (Dmitr1ch/Shutterstock) How extreme weather leaves a lasting mark on trees and shrubs POZNAŃ, Poland — In the Arctic’s harsh borderlands, where trees wage a constant battle for survival, an international research team has discovered that extreme cold leaves lasting fingerprints in wood. These “blue rings,” visible only under a microscope, reveal centuries-old stories of climate disasters that once brought summer temperatures plunging to near-freezing. The study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, examined pine trees and juniper shrubs in the Arctic. The research team ventured...

Position Paper: A Fundamentally Reformed Tax System: Shifting Federal Revenue Generation to State-Collected Business Taxes Executive Summary: This paper proposes a fundamental reform of the United States tax system, shifting the responsibility for generating federal revenue entirely to businesses through taxes collected at the state level. Under this system, the federal government would determine each state's total business revenue and levy a flat percentage tax on that amount. States would then have complete autonomy in designing their own business tax systems to collect these funds, eliminating the need for federal corporate or individual income taxes. This proposal aims to simplify...

Signs that we were once a truly great nation are all around us. Previous generations of Americans handed us the keys to the most magnificent domestic infrastructure that the world had ever seen, but now it is literally falling apart all around us. Thousands of bridges are structurally deficient and there have already been some very high profile collapses. Hundreds of thousands of miles of highways and roads in the United States are in very poor shape. Aging sewer systems are leaking raw sewage all over the place, and children are being slowly poisoned by lead pipes that desperately need...

Trump was considered reckless for wanting to start a war at the end of his term. Now, Biden is doing the same.President Joe Biden has less than a month in office, but that might be enough time to leave a very big mess on President-elect Donald Trump's desk. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan presented Biden with plans to bomb Iranian nuclear sites before the end of his term "in a meeting several weeks ago," Axios reported on Thursday. A source told Axios that Biden's inner circle believes that he has both "an imperative and an opportunity to strike" now. The...

TFAs, harmful fats linked to heart disease, can form during home cooking with sulfur-rich vegetables like garlic and onions at high temperatures. A Japanese study found this effect is minor under normal conditions but emphasized awareness of TFA risks. A new study reveals that garlic and onions contain compounds that can convert into trans fats when exposed to high cooking temperatures. Trans-fatty acids (TFAs) are a significant contributor to cardiovascular diseases. These harmful fats can build up on the walls of arteries, narrowing them and increasing the risk of heart attacks. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that TFAs are...

What if a centuries-old Amazonian brew held the key to better mental health and well-being? Ayahuasca, a psychoactive tea traditionally used in spiritual ceremonies, is once again making headlines after the most extensive study of its kind reveals promising associations between its use and improved mental health outcomes. “Ayahuasca has been used for centuries by Indigenous communities for healing and spiritual purposes, but despite its growing global popularity, its effects on mental health in contemporary settings are not well understood,” study co-author and adjunct associate professor at Swinburne University in Australia, Daniel Perkins, told PsyPost. “With more people around the...

I've noticed, as of late, the quality of the arguments on Free Republic have declined. This is especially true as regards the H1B argument. I have no intention of rehashing this argument, nor the points therein. I am speaking only to the tone and tenor of our forum participants. Musk did us no favors by being so confrontational about this issue, and may have inadvertently sparked the furor. I fault him for that. I see he's trying to cool this down now, and that is to his credit. However, it is my belief that the Deep State saw an opening...

When I read the New York Post article proclaiming that President Trump supports the fraudulent system known as H1B visa hiring, I knew something was amiss because we previously looked at Trump’s various business hires and use of the visa process.Apparently, the NY Post called President Trump to get him to weigh in on the controversial subject that has been triggered by Elon Musk saying he would “go to war on this issue” to maintain the H1B visa system -and subsequent foreign employment for tech skilled workers- his various companies depend upon.Here’s the topline takeaway from the article that has...

America's current mass immigration mess is the result of a change in the laws in 1965. Prior to 1965, despite some changes in the 50's, America was a low-immigration country basically living under immigration laws written in 1924. Thanks to low immigration, the swamp of cheap labor was largely drained during this period, America became a fundamentally middle-class society, and our many European ethnic groups were brought together into a common national culture. In some ways, this achievement was so complete that we started to take for granted what we had achieved and forgot why it happened. So in a...

We live in a high crime society. Nobody can dispute that fact, and it has been this way for a long time. But the crime wave that we have witnessed in recent years has been truly breathtaking. Tens of thousands of gangs are running wild in our major urban areas, and the growth of those gangs has been supercharged during the past four years thanks to the reckless border policies of the Biden administration. Now we have rampant lawlessness in our streets, and it certainly isn’t going to be easy to clean up this mess. The following are 15 facts...

FESTIVUS Each year on December 23rd, Festivus commemorates a holiday episode of the television comedy, Seinfeld. In 1997, the popular television comedy brought Festivus to the masses when Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller) explains he invented the holiday in response to the commercialism of Christmas. Its slogan is "A Festivus for the rest of us." #Festivus Sitcoms often combine holidays and family discord. However, one only has to look to our own families to find a little humor. This holiday reminds us how easily we take things too seriously at times. Politics, traditions, grudges and more lead us down...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fled his country, now under the protection of Vladimir Putin in Moscow. In only a few days, a regime that had withstood over a decade of brutal civil war crumbled into dust before the onslaught of a new rebel offensive.Now, Syria teeters on the brink of tribal mayhem as disparate factions espousing differing strains of radical Islamism begin to squabble over the carcass and jostle for power. ISIS has even reemerged as part of the victorious rebel coalition, prompting U.S. airstrikes over the weekend.But, on cue, the neocons crawled out of the woodwork to gloat,...

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (I) and Vermont Sen. Peter Welch (D) have introduced a resolution to impose 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices, which would require some turnover on the high court every two years. Specifically, their resolution calls for a constitutional amendment to institute nonrenewable 18-year terms for new Supreme Court justices, with a new term starting every two years. It would implement a transition period during which 18-year terms would begin every two years regardless of when a current justice leaves the bench, according to an explanation issued by the senators’ offices. When a current justice...

The historic political comeback of Donald Trump has left Democrats largely unable and unwilling to process what they’ve done to themselves. Yes, they whine and cry and emote, like wounded adolescent narcissists, because that’s all they can do. What of cold-eyed analysis that might compel them to make difficult choices and save what remains of their party? No. They’re afraid. That is beyond them now. They’re locked in their doom loop. In granting Trump the White House through an electoral college landslide and popular vote, American voters also made it clear that they were fed up with leftist ideology. This...

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, indicated she will confirm Pete Hegseth as the next secretary of defense on Monday. The announcement marks a stark pivot for Ernst, who has been leading a behind-the-scenes effort to tank Hegseth’s nomination. “I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,” Ernst said in a press release. “Following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my...

Trump won the 2024 election and if he follows through on his promises, the Chair’s risk-taking will have paid off and fusionism will be the new underlying philosophy of the Libertarian Party. I don’t say this as a threat but just an objective view of things. I believe under fusionism the LP will turn more into a lobbying group instead of a political party. Will this new philosophy keep old Libertarians like me around? Probably not those of us brought into Libertarianism through Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, and to some degree Pat Buchanan. We are not the kinds of people...

President-elect Trump’s confirmation last month of his plan to deploy military assets for immigration enforcement sparked a constitutional debate. Legal scholars and commentators quickly declared such action forbidden by long-standing prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. But this conventional wisdom misreads both the letter and spirit of American law. A careful examination of a pair of longstanding statutes reveals military support for immigration enforcement is permissible.The issue hinges on two 19th century laws: the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and the Insurrection Act of 1807. When properly understood, both allow the President to use active-duty military forces to...

On Saturday night, Donald Trump announced he intends to appoint Kash Patel as director of the FBI.The news sparked an immediate frenzy from establishment figures across media and politics. Legal and national security “experts” were deployed to the Sunday morning news shows to characterize the move as evidence that Trump intends to politicize the FBI and use it as a weapon against his many political opponents.The political establishment’s concerns about what a Trump FBI could do mirror a lot of what we’ve heard from the right in recent years as they found themselves in the Bureau’s crosshairs.But almost all of...