Free Republic

@RandPaul Thanks to @FBIDirectorKash, we now have the electronic devices Dr. Fauci used during the COVID pandemic and throughout the first Trump administration. Now, it’s time to find out what was on those devices. I referred Dr. Fauci for prosecution under both Presidents Biden and Trump, and now I’m gearing up to subpoena him to testify under oath in front of Congress. Stay tuned…

The Senate’s presiding Republican chair has ruled that Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has the sole authority to decide if provisions of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act violate the 1974 Congressional Budget Act or other budget laws, a controversial ruling Democrats tried to overturn but failed. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who was presiding over the Senate at the time, ruled that the chair will not sustain any budgetary points of order against the massive bill unless Graham as Budget chair says they are valid objections — drastically limiting the power of Democrats, who are in the minority.

Three conservatives — Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — are pressing for the adoption of an amendment that would cut an additional $313m in federal Medicaid spending. And at least two of them, Johnson and Scott, won’t say if they’ll vote for final passage if the amendment doesn’t succeed. The amendment, which would stop the 9-to-1 federal match for Medicaid enrollees who are “able-bodied” and without dependent children in states that expanded the program, is unlikely to be adopted.Multiple Republican senators, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have pushed hard against the Medicaid cuts already...

For new moms 'Kelly' and Jada, getting a place on the Mother and Baby Unit at HMP New Hall was life-changing. Both women committed crimes which landed them with short custodial sentences. For both of them, it was their first offence. They feared the disruption being locked up would cause their families, and especially the impact it would have on their babies, who weren’t even a year old. Both Kelly (not her real name) and Jada were given a place on the Mother and Baby Unit, a special and rare wing in some women prisons, where female offenders can serve...

A 92-year-old man has been found guilty of the rape and murder of a Bristol woman in a case that remained unsolved for nearly six decades. Louisa Dunne, 75, was found strangled on her living room floor by a neighbour on Britannia Road in Easton, Bristol, on 28 June 1967. Convicted rapist Ryland Headley, of Clarence Road in Ipswich, has now been found guilty of Mrs Dunne's murder following a trial at Bristol Crown Court. Senior investigating officer Det Insp Dave Marchant said Headley, who was in his 30s when he killed Mrs Dunne, had left "a legacy of misery...

The man swimming laps next to me in the public pool in Santa Monica paused at the edge of the limpid water and sighed. A fifth-generation Angeleno of Chinese descent, Colin said he’s been driving his two daughters to their activities all over town – today is swim team training — because their nanny won’t. The nannies will not come out of the house. He said: “It’s like Anne Frank or something.” The nannies in this town are mostly Hispanic and like so many other Latinos doing important jobs in our community, they’re now living in a state of terror....

President Trump late Sunday cautioned Republican lawmakers against going “too crazy” with cost-cutting efforts as fiscal hawks push for spending cuts in the massive reconciliation package making its way through Congress. “For all cost cutting Republicans, of which I am one, REMEMBER, you still have to get reelected. Don’t go too crazy!” Trump posted on Truth Social. Trump argued the bill would make up for the lack of deficit reduction efforts with significant economic growth. The Senate is plowing ahead with efforts to pass the massive tax and spending bill, which contains key pieces of President Trump’s agenda, including an...

Driven by a desire to help ex-servicemembers with mental illness, GOP lawmakers led a failed campaign last year to persuade the Biden administration to approve psychedelic drugs. Now they may have found the ally they need in President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A longtime believer in psychedelics’ potential to help people with illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, despite the lack of supportive evidence Biden officials found, Kennedy is ramping up government-run clinical studies and telling the disappointed lawmakers doctors will be prescribing the drugs soon. “These are people who badly need some kind of...

LATAKIA, Syria - The young man’s heart was sliced from his chest and placed on his body. His name was No. 56 on a handwritten list of 60 dead that included his cousins, neighbors and at least six children from their coastal Syrian village.The men who killed 25-year-old Suleiman Rashid Saad called his father from the young victim’s phone and dared him to fetch the body. It was next to the barbershop.“His chest was wide open. They cut out his heart. They put it on top of his chest,” said his father, Rashid Saad. It was late afternoon on March...

During debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) rose in opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and warned of its impact on the national deficit.

n a disturbing and increasingly frequent pattern, the Palestinian town of Taybeh, located east of Ramallah and known as the last remaining town in the West Bank inhabited entirely by Christians, faces ongoing attacks by Israeli settlers targeting residents, their property, and farmlands. According to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, in recent weeks settlers have established a new outpost on the eastern edge of Taybeh atop the ruins of a farmhouse whose owners were displaced roughly a year ago. The outpost was erected in a vital agricultural zone, spanning around 17,000 dunums (roughly 4,200 acres), which serves as a...

@RandPaul How is this America’s responsibility? The US will have to borrow the $ from China before sending the $ to Gaza. Someone must have forgotten we are still over $36 trillion in debt. State Department approves $30 million in funding for Gaza

Mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani wants to spend $65 million in taxpayer funds on transgender treatment — including for minors — if he’s elected to lead New York City. The Queens assemblyman, who is locked in a close race with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, says on his campaign website that the money would be funneled to public providers to help transgender New Yorkers. About $57 million would be allotted for public hospitals, community clinics, federally qualified health centers and nonprofits with another $8 million for more expanded services, the website states. Mamdani defended the spending plan as...

@TheoVon Omnibus bills and why they suck w/ @RepThomasMassie

Top officials will brief lawmakers on Thursday amid a political battle over what intelligence reveals about the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.The White House plans to limit classified intelligence sharing with Congress after leaks to the press of an early assessment undermined President Donald Trump’s claim that U.S. airstrikes obliterated Iranian nuclear facilities, a senior Trump administration official said, setting the stage for a contentious classified briefing before senators Thursday. Amid a political battle over what the intelligence shows, the White House is expected to send four of its top national security officials to brief lawmakers: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,...

Former White House aide and commentator Steve Bannon ripped into Fox News host Mark Levin this week as the two continue to trade barbs over the U.S. military’s involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. “Boy, Tel Aviv Levin’s big mad,” Bannon said during an episode of his popular “War Room” podcast. “He’s big mad as a spokesmodel for a foreign nation that didn’t get them what they want.” The MAGA firebrand was referring to a social media post by Levin earlier this week that called Bannon “a disgusting fraud” over his time serving as a top aide to...

..... Members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation say Massie’s sprawling district, which runs along the northern border along Ohio and Indiana and stretches from the southern Cincinnati suburbs to the outer bands of the Louisville metro area, is a unique cross-section of the state that appears to relish Massie’s independent streak. It’s home to some of the most prominent members of the “liberty faction” of the Kentucky Republican Party, a group that embraces Trump while also gravitating toward libertarian-leaning Republicans like Massie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The senator has weathered his own barrage of attacks from Trump for voicing opposition...

Ignore the link but it gets to my point. First let me say, I voted for Trump 3 times, had a Trump flag hanging out front and support 99% of what he does. My concern are the uncertainty with tariffs. I have asked customers on a daily basis for the past 2 months how business is and across SS the board the uncertainty of the tariffs is KILLING business. We sell to these companies and we are dead. Most manufacturers are dead and businesses overall are dead. I can’t believe this has gone on for so long. I think if...

A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings. The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said.

Following the US bombing of its nuclear sites, Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil chokepoint. Rather than direct retaliation on the Iranian mainland, the US should counter this threat by seizing Kharg Island, the terminal through which 90% of Iran’s oil is exported. Additionally, the US should issue an ultimatum to Iran’s two navies—the IRGC’s coastal patrol and the regular blue-water navy to either dock and surrender or be sunk, thus ensuring freedom of navigation without a broader, destructive war on Iranian soil.