Free Republic

Faced with a deluge of fraudulent unemployment claims, California officials said Thursday that 350,000 of the debit cards they issued containing benefits have been frozen because of suspicious activity, including a high number of claims at a single address. The debit cards frozen by the state Employment Development Department and Bank of America could represent billions of dollars in benefits paid out since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March. “The Department’s top priority is to quickly verify the identity of any claimants in this group that may have been impacted by scammer attacks, while we work to shut down the...

Autódromo Internacional do Algarve First Grand Prix2020 Number of Laps66 Circuit Length4.653km Race Distance306.826 km Lap Recordnull null (null)

“[M]ost arrested in protests aren’t leftist radicals,” headlined an Associated Press analysis published Oct. 20. Of those arrested this summer during the nation’s largest outbreak of riots in 30 years, “Very few of those charged appear to be affiliated with highly organized extremist groups, and many are young suburban adults from the very neighborhoods Trump vows to protect from the violence in his reelection push to win support from the suburbs,” the article’s second paragraph says. They've been portrayed by the president as violent left-wing radicals and used to scare suburban voters. But an @AP review found most of...

Attacks on President Trump’s performance on Covid-19 have been common among media commentators and are central to his opponent’s presidential campaign. Polls suggest this continual faultfinding has influenced many voters’ perceptions of how the president has managed the epidemic. These criticisms, however, are unjustified and unwarranted. Trump’s unconventional style and inherent inability to avoid the spotlight, coupled with the Food and Drug Administration’s initial overregulation and the Centers for Disease Control’s early underperformance, have made him a ready target. But Trump’s application of targeted regulatory relief and financial incentives stimulated an unprecedented private-sector response to the pandemic, more than compensating...

Florida Update: VBM Ballots - DEMs lead by 569,039 In-Person Early Voting - REPs lead by 141,522 Combined Early Voting - DEMs lead by 427,517

Lesley Stahl of CBS News told Vice President Mike Pence during a "60 Minutes" interview this week that she felt he and President Trump had "insulted" her -- as well as the news program.....Both interviews were released after the president went through with his threat to post an unedited version of the conversation in the hours leading up to the final presidential debate Thursday night in Nashville, Tenn.The president urged viewers to “look at the bias, hatred, and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS," under the first 37-minute video posted to his Facebook page.

Former vice-president Joe Biden said during the final presidential debate Tuesday night that the United States had a “good relationship with Hitler” during a conversation about diplomacy with North Korea. "We had a good relationship with Hitler before he, in fact, invaded Europe, the rest of Europe,” Biden told Trump after the president mentioned the good relationship he has with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. “Come on.” ... Many conservatives promptly criticized Biden on Twitter, including by conservative radio host Mark Levin. “Did Joe Biden just say we have a good relationship with Hitler at one point?” Levin tweeted....

It might seem obvious, but in all the racket that follows a debate, the most important focus is how it affects the race, if at all.It was a solid debate, despite more questions geared toward former Vice President Joe Biden and against President Donald Trump, and with moderator Kristen Welker interrupting the president 24 times to Biden’s two, by Fox’s count. On the most important count, however, Trump won the debate hands down. Here’s three reasons why.Pennsylvania As Welker attempted to move from energy to the next topic in the last half hour of the debate, Trump asked a...

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin slammed Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker as “a shameless master of personal tax avoidance” Thursday in an email to his Chicago employees that criticized the governor’s push for a graduated-income tax rate amendment. “I am not willing to stand by as, once again, spineless politicians try to sell a trick disguised as a solution. Particularly not from a governor who, having inherited a great deal of wealth, has worked so diligently to avoid paying taxes himself,” Griffin wrote in an email obtained by the Tribune, which was verified by a company spokesman. “Not only does he...

Among the many ways the rich are different from you and me: Only they can afford grand cru Burgundy. That wasn’t always the case. In the 1990s, middle-class wine lovers could still afford to experience that rite of passage — drinking a truly great wine, not simply to enjoy it, but to understand what qualities made it exceptional in the eyes of history. It might have been a splurge, perhaps requiring a few sacrifices. But it was feasible, just as it was possible to buy first-growth Bordeaux, or the top wines of Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino or Napa Valley cabernet...

As election fever rises to new levels every few hours, my mind goes back to November 2016. In particular, two incidents that occurred following Donald Trump's stunning victory stand out in my memory. A week or so after the election, I was leaving my local post office when I spied a bunch of keys lying on the curb. I picked them up and went inside to ask if they belonged to anyone. A woman I spoke with recognized me from a sitar recital we'd attended, and we began chatting. Whenever we saw a passerby, we would ask if the keys...

Here we go, folks. This election will determine whether we continue on as a free Republic with the Constitution and the rule of law preserving our republican form of government as established and continue guaranteeing our God-given Liberty or we go Venezuela. If we lose this election, the radical socialist-democrats will attempt to impose their globalist Green New Deal and carry out their plans to pack the courts and do what they wish as a godless one-party state with no constitutional constraints. Then (assuming they were to succeed in subduing we the people--we do have a prior and higher claim...

Pope Francis is calling for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples. This is a significant departure from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office as well as the pope’s predecessors on this issue.His remarks came as part of a documentary that premiered last night and reflects on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT. “Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film. He then...

Hunter Biden's ex-business partner Tony Bobulinski claimed on Thursday that he met with former VP Biden regarding his son's business dealings and alleged that someone involved with the controversy had warned him about coming forward. "I was told this past Sunday by somebody who was also involved in this matter that if I went public, this information -- it would 'bury all of us, man,'" Bobulinski alleged in a statement Thursday night. He went on to accuse the former VP of lying about his involvement with his son's business dealings and claimed that the family sought to conceal his activities....

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge [of My law, where I reveal My will].Because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge,I will also reject you from being My priest.Since you have forgotten the law of your God,I will also forget your children - Hosea 4:6 (AMP) While growing up south of the Mason-Dixon Line during the '70s, there were a few things I could count on seeing inside all of my family members’ homes: pictures of Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy Sr.During my childhood, my community was immersed in church, Sunday...

As Illinois smashed another daily record with 4,942 new coronavirus cases reported Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker threw down the gauntlet to suburban bar and restaurant owners threatening to flout his latest restrictions on indoor drinking and dining. The Democratic governor issued his harshest warning yet to potential scofflaws before his indoor dining ban goes into effect Friday in Will, Kankakee, Kane and DuPage counties, where COVID-19 infection rates are soaring to new highs. But some owners say they will still seat customers inside, arguing the latest rollback means a “death sentence” for their businesses after months of struggling to stay...

There was a low bar for Joe Biden in the first debate, given his cognitive challenges. Because he exceeded that pessimism, he won momentum. In opposite fashion, there was similarly an expectation that a disruptive Donald Trump would turn off the audience by the sort of interruptions and bullying that characterized the first debate. He did not do that. He instead let a cocky Biden sound off, and thus more or less tie himself into knots on a host of topics, but most critically on gas and oil. So likewise Trump will gain momentum by exceeding those prognoses. But far...

President Donald Trump will host a rally in the conservative stronghold of Waukesha on Saturday, marking his seventh trip to the state this year. Trump’s campaign announced Thursday the president will deliver remarks at Stein’s Aircraft Services at the Waukesha County Airport Saturday evening as part of a four-stop tour that also includes events in North Carolina, Ohio and New Hampshire. The announcement comes on the heels of Trump’s rally in Janesville on Saturday. **SNIP** Asked about Trump’s planned visit, Gov. Tony Evers said he strongly encourages the president to require all attendees to wear masks and practice social distancing,...

(Every word in this song would be a lie if Joe Biden sang it) Lyrics of the video {roughly transcribed}: I'm mentally stable. I don't believe in lyin'. I'm not Joe Biden. I don't know Joe Biden. Never say something stupid. No, that's not why I'm hidin'. I'm not Joe Biden. I don't know Joe Biden. Never got sombody fired for not doing what I said. No black kids in the pool rub the hairs on my leg. Never grabbed a woman's shoulders, came and sniffed her from behind. My son Hunter Biden's favorite color isn't white. Never had a...

Sixteen years ago, a group of military veterans turned a presidential campaign upside down. The Democratic Party had selected then-senator John Kerry as its nominee. His party positioned him as a war hero, backed with a glowing campaign biography by historian Douglas Brinkley. Inaccuracies in Brinkley’s account attracted the attention of Navy veterans who had served with Kerry in Vietnam. They formed a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and began to investigate and document Kerry’s activities during and after the war. They quickly found and publicized evidence that undercut Kerry’s mythology, including his oft-repeated claim that he...