Free Republic

Protests in NYC reached a point where drastic measures were employed to clear college campuses of student lead demonstrations... did the police go to far? Another hardhitting, boots on the ground reporting from Cash Jordan. YouTube New York lifestyle reporter

The National Rally leading polling for the European Parliament elections next month... Last weekend President Emmanuel Macron broached the notion of proportional elections for the National Assembly instead of the current 'first past the post' system. In Marseille Thursday the arrival of the Olympic torch in France. A 12-day voyage from Greece for the torch... Video from Paris on Saturday afternoon. In this video one sees in the beginning tables set up by Leftist activists spreading an intense anti-capitalist... Also in Paris on Saturday afternoon a "Let's Preserve Innocence" demonstration... Meanwhile a Yellow Vests protest held in the streets of...

This week in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, President Biden dismissed the 30% rise in food prices since he took office, saying "people can afford it. Thanks to Bidenomics, they have the money to spend. I've personally canceled billions of dollars in student debt. We're putting newly arrived immigrants up in hotels and feeding them. We're subsidizing electric vehicles so drivers don't have to pay high gas prices. Most of us have credit cards, savings, or EBTs. Many of our cities have effectively legalized shoplifting items of less than a thousand dollars. There's no crisis. The Republicans are gas-lighting...

Target has announced plans to substantially reduce the number of stores that carry Pride Month merchandise in June. The decision comes after a fierce backlash against the company for plastering its stores with LGBTQ-themed material. This development highlights the challenges companies face when trying to drive revenue while avoiding moves that could alienate its customer base. The Minneapolis-based retailer will limit the Pride-themed items to select locations based on historical sales performance and availability. The full collection will also be available online.This decision comes after a rather contention Pride season in 2023, when the retailer was barraged with criticism of...

Burnett Plaza, the tallest building in Fort Worth, has been sold at foreclosure auction for $12.3 million. It previously sold in 2021 for $137.5 million.

Kudos to FOX News reporter Bill Melugin for going where no FOX News reporter has dared to venture before. Melugin asked the most obvious question on overy Republican voter’s mind – why should we keep voting for these cowards and liars? In April, Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans voted to send another $95 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel and NOTHNG for securing our own border with Mexico. This was the last straw for millions of Americans who thought they were voting for politicians who actually cared about America First and the global community second. On...

A group of foreign bondholders have taken steps to force Ukraine to begin repaying its debts as soon as next year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. If they succeed, Kiev could haemorrhage $500 million every year on interest payments alone. The group, which includes investment giants BlackRock and Pimco, granted Kiev a two-year debt holiday in 2022, gambling that the conflict with Russia would have concluded by now. With no end to the fighting in sight, the lenders have now hired lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges and bankers from PJT Partners to meet with Ukrainian officials and...

Governor Kathy Hochul announced that a $2.3 billion tax-funded grant in redevelopment contracts for JFK International Airport has been awarded exclusively to minority and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE). MWBE stands for Minority/Women-Owned Business Enterprise. It’s a certification issued by the state that gives developmental benefits to businesses that are primarily owned and operated by a woman or a person who is at least 25% African American, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American. If the business is publicly traded, the stock must also be at least 51% minority-owned. The move, which marks the largest participation of MWBE firms in any public-private partnership...

Never forget the wild ride the so-called “experts” and elites took us on during the COVID pandemic—all in the name of safety and health. They scared everyone half to death and had us doing the most absurd things, making us look like fools. Remember the COVID “crop circles”? As if sitting six feet apart could magically save you from an airborne virus. It’s unbelievable that so many people bought into this nonsense, but they did—and in droves. And then there were those “arrows” in grocery stores, implying that if you just followed the direction, you’d magically dodge the virus. People...

Biden, talking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, made light of America’s struggles with Bidenflation (higher home prices, higher mortgage rates, higher energy and food costs, higher …) caliously saying that “they can afford it.” Well Joe, your big donors (the top 0.5% can afford it! But not the middle class that you have abandoned. In fact, much of America has drained their savings and run up massive debt to cope with your terrible economic policies. The amount of credit card debt across the US has hit a new record high of $1.337 trillion (even though it appears to have finally hit...

As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Homelessness is surging, the number of Americans living in poverty is rising, and more Americans are considered to be among “the working poor” than ever before. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a historic economic shift right now, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh during the months ahead. Needless to say, that is really bad news for all of us. According to a report from Harvard University, approximately 650,000 Americans were homeless at some point last year....

Russia is threatening to strike British military facilities and has started practicing the use of nuclear weapons. A threatening statement released by the Kremlin stated that "British military facilities may be targeted" by the Russian army. A similar threat was also directed at France. The threats from Russia come after statements by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who expressed support for Ukraine's right to use British weapons in the war with Russia, and Macron did not rule out the possibility of deploying French troops to assist Ukraine in the war. In addition, the Kremlin announced...

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain Housing Trust announced an expansion of its program that provides a $25,000 forgivable loan to buyers who are Black, Indigenous or people of color and who are buying a permanently affordable home through the trust or its partner agencies across the state. Originally operating in the northwest part of the state, the Homeownership Equity Program (HEP) Downpayment Assistance will now be available through nine partner organizations covering every county of the State. The program was created with a three-year grant from the New England Federal Credit Union in 2021. The expansion of the program is funded...

Biden and Bidenomics is disastrous for the middle class and low wage workers. Food and housing prices through the roof, and now we have mortgage purchase demand declining -57% under Biden. Mortgage applications increased 2.6 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 3, 2024. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 3 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted...

Former head of Israel's National Security Council, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland was interviewed last Wednesday on Israel's Radio 103FM, where he strongly criticized the Biden administration for its policy positions concerning the Gaza war. The interview included several dramatic statements from the former security chief, including his statement, “The U.S. is much more with Hamas than with us.” According to Eiland, the U.S. and Israel only see eye to eye on one issue in the Gaza War: The hostages. “The United States is with us on only one issue – the hostages,” Eiland told hosts Ben Caspit and Aryeh Eldad....

The Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place. If the Fed pushes rates higher, interest payments on our 34 trillion dollar national debt could spin wildly out of control and bank balance sheets will be in even worse condition than they are now. First Republic just bit the dust, and literally thousands of other small and mid-size banks and in serious jeopardy. So it would be suicidal to hike rates at this point. But if the Fed were to reduce rates, that would be like injecting jet fuel into a raging fire. Our ongoing inflation crisis...

The unbroken string of economic disasters that is Bidenomics now has a solid explanation. Jared Bernstein, the Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers doesn't understand economics. While being interviewed for the newly released documentary Finding the Money, he was unable to explain how the Federal Reserve creates money--something I taught to freshmen in macroeconomics classes for 23 years. "The government definitely prints money, and it definitely lends that money by selling bonds," Bernstein guessed. "Is that what they do? They sell bonds, yeah, they sell bonds. Right? Since they sell bonds, and people buy the bonds and lend...

Anew report claims that the Biden Administration is attempting to implement federal regulations that will be difficult to reverse by a future president, as polls increasingly suggest that Joe Biden will lose the November election to former President Donald Trump. According to the Daily Caller, the report says that President Trump plans to sign multiple resolutions under the 1996 Congressional Review Act if he wins a second term, aimed at reversing many of Biden’s regulations. In response, officials in the Biden White House are examining methods to make regulations more permanent or harder to undo. “They’re all looking back to...

San Francisco's well-publicized homelessness crisis is emblematic of the problems facing many of America's big cities as they struggle to provide affordable housing against the backdrop of high interest rates and low inventory. This has led the city to employ a variety of methods to tackle the problem, but a recent plan to provide tiny houses for San Francisco's homeless population has residents furious over the cost. The units would cost a reported $113,000 each to construct. Considering that the average home in San Francisco costs nearly $1 million the $113,000-per-unit cost for the tiny houses seems in line with...

Lightning strikes TWICE! One year after regional banks crashed and burned due to the combination of tumbling debt/treasury prices coupled with cratering commercial real estate loans, fears about the current state of Commercial Real Estate – where most offices still see tenants at best 3 to 4 days a week and are literally burning through rents – appear long forgotten. Is that sensible? For one answer, we turned to the latest report from Goldman’s REIT/CRE expert Chandhi Luthra who has published a visual assessment of the state of CRE in 2024 in terms of loan maturities, 2023 extensions, and property...