Free Republic

The Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey open for business today..... Car-rental company Hertz filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in Delaware today.... Economic advisers to the President see better economic news later this year...... For the first time since a major economic downturn in 2002, Argentina is in default on a loan tonight..... Iran's top military commander says his country has intelligence on US military movements in the Persian Gulf region and far beyond....... A successful test of a laser weapon by the United States........ The US is considering a nuclear weapons test for the first time since 1992.........

The owners of the Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey intend to re-open tomorrow after today's New Jersey State Health Department notice at the door of the gym closing it down...... The latest twist in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia is the arrest of the man who made a video of the killing used as evidence to arrest the first two suspects..... Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli set to plead guilty in the federal college admissions case alleging a scam tomorrow..... The FBI says that an attack this morning at the Corpus Christi Naval Air...

The Chinese government is in a massive resource grab in Africa, which has huge ramifications for natural resource prices, not the least of which will be the cost of imported oil to the U.S., and ultimately the stock market and economy. Beijing's latest foray is trying to buy 6 billion barrels of oil that is already spoken for via leases to Exxon, Chevron , Royal Dutch Shell, and Total SA. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. presently leases 16 oil blocks on what remains of the oil industry's dominant Seven Sisters. It's a monster development, and a dramatic signal of how...

House Republicans want the American people to know that right now -- around 60 miles off the coast of Key West, Fla. -- China is drilling for oil, thanks to a lease issued by Cuba. But 1,200 miles north of Key West, Democrats in Washington are blocking the United States from conducting its own environmentally-safe oil and gas exploration in similar U.S. coastal areas, said a news release from House Republican leader John Boehner's office. "By prohibiting the United States from taking part in the same type of energy exploration that the Chinese are conducting just miles off our shores,...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are now sailing to Venezuela, part of a wider deal between the two U.S.-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. The tankers' voyage came after Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolás Maduro already turned to Iran for help in flying in chemicals needed at an aging refinery amid a gasoline shortage, a symptom of the wider economic and political chaos gripping Latin America's one-time largest oil producer. For Iran, the tankers represent a way to bring money into its...

"We won't be staying in our cars and you don't have to wear a mask. There may be a lot of people giving hugs and lots of hand shaking going on. Doing our part to strengthen the herd immunity against Covid-19" Libertarian activist Ammon Bundy announcing a worship service..... Meanwhile the federal Bureau of Land Management is investigating after a complaint from hikers about Ryan Bundy building irrigation infrastructure on land traditionally used by rancher Cliven Bundy but claimed as federal land now designated as the Gold Butte National Monument..... Also in the linked story the US Ninth Circuit Court...

Caracas has accused Colombia and US of plotting to overthrow president Maduro; says military found abandoned vessels in Orinoco river Venezuela’s military says it has seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found while patrolling the Orinoco river on Saturday, several days after the government accused its neighbour of aiding a failed invasion plot. In a statement, the defence ministry said the boats were equipped with machine guns and ammunition, but had no crew, adding they were discovered as part of a nationwide operation to guarantee Venezuela’s “freedom and sovereignty”. According to a preliminary investigation the boats were...

It is time to reopen America. The extended lockdown to "flatten the curve" effectually flattened our economy, decimated businesses, left millions unemployed, and drained life savings. We tried, yet people still died, because that is what incurable viruses do. There is no reason for states to remain under lockdown. Unless, of course, your goal is to destroy what is left of the U.S. economy, ditch capitalism, and become like the weight loss capital of the world, Venezuela. There is no need for Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem in Venezuela. No sirree. Overeating is not an issue when consuming zoo animals. It...

Russian soldiers are operating drones over Venezuela as part of a search operation for members of a paramilitary force that led a botched invasion this week, local media reported on Friday, citing deleted tweets from a state military command centre. At least eight Russian special forces members will be “operating drones to run search and patrol operations” near La Guaira, the coastal state just north of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, according to a report from local news outlet El Nacional. It posted a screenshot of a tweet it said was later deleted on Thursday from the profile of the military command,...

The United States stopping a United Nations Security Council vote on the coronavirus situation citing the inclusion of "false narratives" from China.... The United States tightening visa guidelines for Chinese journalists.... The unemployment rate in the United States was 14.7 percent for April...... Tesla trying to resume work at its factory in Fremont, California.... Ohio State University is paying out some 41 million dollars to settle lawsuits with 162 survivors of sexual abuse by a former school doctor.... (Warning: Disturbing Content) The woman who's accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 is ready to take a lie detector...

The US Justice Department moving to drop the criminal charges against former National Security Adviser General Michael Flynn who was prosecuted in connection with the Robert Mueller investigation into alleged "Russian collusion" with President Trump's campaign in 2016. The Justice Department is asking that the charges be dismissed "with prejudice" meaning they cannot be refiled in the future...... The US Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a former aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie convicted in 2016 of fraud...... Oregon's Governor Kate Brown is talking about a regulated re-opening of Oregon business starting May 15th with new "rules"...

An immediate call to action from Oregon to defend a business draws hundreds..... President Trump talks "Reopening America" the Republican political strategy for 2020 it appears but first..... Rocket fire on a military complex at Baghdad's international airport this morning..... India has killed a leading Kashmiri rebel leader..... Here in the USA Patriot Prayer Group leader Joey Gibson urging a peaceful witness at 1 pm local time, 4 pm Eastern US time in Salem, Oregon where authorities threatened the owner of "Glamour Salon" with a 70-thousand dollar fine for re-opening her shop. Police today issued a written threat to arrest...

Carlos Osweda (An Alias for a well known citizen journalist) has written a great thread on revealing the recent Venezuelan plot where American veterans were captured in an attempt to discredit President Trump. Carlos is an exceptionally observant student on the behavior of leftist monsters and methods. He reveals yet another ongoing fraud here:

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States had nothing to do with an alleged incursion into Venezuela that landed two U.S. citizens behind bars in the crisis-stricken South American nation. Trump said he had just learned of the detention of the pair, accused by Venezuela of being mercenaries. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said they were part of an operation to kill him that was backed by neighboring Colombia and the United States. “Whatever it is, we’ll let you know,” Trump told reporters in Washington before departing from the White House to Arizona. “But it has...

New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, as Andrea Widburg notes here, got a Pulitzer prize for lying about the massive crimes of communism in what was then the Ukraine. It's supposedly an embarassment. But not if you check out who got a Pulitzer this time: Greg Grandin, Hugo Chavez's biggest apologist. A guy who defends Hugo Chavez and all his crimes to his last breath. I'm not talking about a guy like Bernie Sanders who says 'yes socialism in Venezuela is great but there are problems.' Grandin is a real dyed-in-the-wool useful stooge who can't stop praising the brutal communist dictator. There never...

Nicolás Maduro, the embattled leader of Venezuela, said Monday that authorities in Caracas captured 13 “terrorists”—including two U.S. citizens-- in a failed invasion attempt that he said was no doubt orchestrated by the Trump administration. Maduro made a nationwide broadcast on state television and held up a pair of U.S. passports that he said were recovered. He read off the names and birthdays of the two Americans.

BOGOTA, Colombia — Thinking up ways our all-encompassing crisis could get even worse has become a grimly popular parlor game for Venezuelans. For years, the go-to worst-case scenario was civil war between the political factions in our country. These days, an even scarier prospect has begun to displace that in the pantheon of Venezuelan nightmares: armed conflict with Colombia. The reason? Venezuela’s increasingly tight alliance with the drug-running guerrilla armies waging war on the Colombian state, which has rattled Bogota so hard it’s now seeking a hemispheric response. On Wednesday, Colombia, the United States and nine other countries invoked the...

The operation involved at least three boats, though only one was captured. One of its commanders sent audio recordings to Venezuelan military and police WhatsApp groups, calling for troops to rebel and take to the streets. Alemán, a Venezuelan lawmaker now living outside the country, said Sunday he had been involved in Alcalá’s operation in Colombia since last year. He said the group had to “make some adjustments” after a shipment of weapons destined for the camps was seized by Colombian authorities in March. Alemán said the plan was for the boats to land at La Guaira, home to Venezuela’s...

A former Green Beret has taken responsibility for what he claimed was a failed attack Sunday aimed at overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that the socialist government said ended with eight dead. Jordan Goudreau’s comments in an interview with an exiled Venezuelan journalist capped a bizarre day that started with reports of a pre-dawn amphibious raid near the South American country’s heavily guarded capital. An AP investigation published Friday found that Goudreau had been working with a retired Venezuelan army general now facing U.S. narcotics charges to train dozens of deserting Venezuelan soldiers at secret camps inside neighboring Colombia....

By: Hassan.Mahmoudi Iran and Venezuela, both engulfed with similar crises, have economic and trade relationship since the time of Iran’s former president, Mahmood Ahmadi-Nezhad. On Thursday, May 1, Elliot Abrams, the head of Venezuela’s affairs in the US government said that during this week Iran has had many more flights to this country: "Our assumption is that those planes that come from Iran are bringing things for the oil industry, and they return full of gold as a form of payment," El Politico quoted Elliot Abrams, the U.S. Special manager for Venezuela as saying. On April 30, 2020, the Bloomberg...