Free Republic

The FBI over the last five years has stepped up its efforts to root out foreign corruption and crack down on money laundering and bribes to overseas governments, reports The Wall Street Journal.The unit was created in 2015 to identify violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a U.S. law that makes it illegal to bribe foreign officials, and scored 34 convictions in cases from 2016 until 2018, according to Business Insider. A Miami FBI unit created in 2019 has already brought cases that have resulted in billions of dollars in settlements.This outstanding achievement results from a combination of enhanced...

On Thursday, a teacher who is on the executive board of the Chicago Teachers Union, for whom she serves as an area vice president, reportedly urged special education teachers to refuse to return to work the week after New Years’ Day because it would be unsafe. A few hours prior to that, the teacher, Sarah Chambers, posted a photo on Instagram of a pool in Puerto Rico captioned, “Spending the last day of 2020 by the poolside.” “We have the whole pool to ourselves,” Chamber’s caption continued. “Then, we are going to old San Juan to get some yummy seafood...

In his 1981 diatribe against contemporary American architecture, "From Bauhaus to Our House," Tom Wolfe notes that seemingly every American child "goes to a school in a building that looks like a duplicating-machine replacement-parts wholesale distribution center warehouse." Anecdotally speaking, this still seems to be the case in East Coast metro areas like Washington and New York City, where suburban teens shuffle in and out of buildings that could double as minimum-security prisons. Wolfe traces the problem to the Lost Generation, which internalized the notion that "they do things better in Europe." In architecture, this outlook was made manifest in...

I was on YouTube just wasting time before midnight to start the new year. As a side note, I am the Ebenezer Scrooge of New Year. I hate this "holiday" because I feel like I have to "celebrate" and the only thing I associate the night with is debauchery. I saw this period drama I have never heard of before pop up on recommended videos. Watching this appeared much more preferable to sitting on the couch listening to the Bidens and watching musicians I do not care one iota for. This period drama is "East Lynne" based on a novel...

Happy New Year People of the MOTI!To those who made it to midnight on purpose to usher in 2021 – I salute you. To those who were forced to make it till midnight by merrymakers in your neighborhood ushering in 2021, I sympathize. And to those who were awakened from a sound sleep by neighborhood merrymakers ushering in 2021, I empathize.There’s no point in recapping 2020, this headline says it all: For the first time in 114 years, the New Year’s Eve spectacular in Times Square was held without a live audience.It would seem that our bettors decided that we...

The 5% rate of VAT on sanitary products - referred to as the "tampon tax" - will be abolished in the UK from 1 January. EU law required members to tax tampons and sanitary towels at 5%, treating period products as non-essential. Chancellor Rishi Sunak committed to scrapping the tax in his March Budget. Campaigners welcomed the end to what they called a "sexist tax" with activist Laura Coryton saying it was "about ending a symptom of sexism". Ms Coryton, 27, who began campaigning to end the tampon tax when she was 21, told the BBC the move "challenged the...

WASHINGTON, Monday, Dec. 31. The scene in the Senate to-day was the most intensely exciting that was ever witnessed in that chamber. Senator BENJAMIN, of Louisiana, who, it had been reported, would make a conciliatory speech, gave out that he would make a parting secession speech, -- an announcement which drew an immense audience. Every corner was crowded. The lobbies were full. Senator BENJAMIN spoke calmly throughout, but the character of his speech at the close opened up to everyone the new era in national affairs. His closing declaration, that the South could never be subjugated, was greeted by the...

“At the moment, POTUS is sitting on a stack of Trump cards that he’s just waiting to unleash…a royal flush! He has court cases that will go to the Supreme Court and thanks to the Texas case, he’s now aware how to file them properly…under article 3 not 2…so the SCOTUS will be forced to listen…. He now has the DNI report. Barr stepped down and can now be a witness…..he did his job. Durham is special counsel and can prosecute, in any state…. He’s letting civil, criminal and federal courts fail to handle the situation properly….so he can use...

A Chinese influencer known as “Glacier Bro” is presumed dead after he was last seen on video losing his balance near icy waters in Tibet. Wang Xiangjun — who gained an online following by posting videos of visiting glaciers — was exploring a waterfall when he disappeared Dec. 20 in Lhari County in northern Tibet, BBC reported. Footage posted on Chinese social media platforms showed the 30-year-old slip near the base of the waterfall into the quick-flowing, frigid waters, the outlet reported. Local authorities said they launched search efforts, but haven’t been able to find him.

2019 National Teacher of the Year, Rodney Robinson, has apologized after he made what he called "a bad joke" on Twitter. In his December 30 tweet, Robinson, a Richmond, Virginia native, referenced the violent attack on Republican Senator Rand Paul by his next door neighbor in 2017, then suggested Senator Mitch McConnell’s neighbors should “step up” and do the same:

Happy New Year and God bless FR!

.. ESTHER: "IF I PERISH, I PERISH" . ESTHER 5 New International Version, emphases added Abrdgd: the complete text is in your Bible . C L I C K : To read ESTHER 5 in full To hear MAX McLEAN reading it To hear a DRAMATIZATION of it HIGHLY recommended by Maudeen! To see an ANIMATION of Esther 4 8 3 B. C. . CHAPTER 5 1 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne...

Let’s go back just a few years ago to the world as President Donald Trump had remade it. He had canceled or pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership “treaty” (which was not a treaty because the Senate had never ratified it); ended America’s participation in the Paris Climate Agreement; renegotiated a new NAFTA along lines far more favorable to the United States, and entered into negotiations with the Chinese aimed at forcing them into a fairer trading arrangement.

Wow! Mike Pence announces on New Year’s Eve that he no longer plans to pursue career in politics! Guess all those who said he is an egomaniac wolf in sheep’s clothing focused on a run in 2024 were wrong. Good call, Mike. You are not fit to be President anyway.

This is the lost city of Meroë in Sudan, with beautifully maintained pyramids as impressive as their more famous counterparts in Egypt. However, unlike the famed pyramids of Giza, the Sudanese site is largely deserted. The pyramids at Meroë, some 125 miles north of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, are rarely visited despite being a Unesco World Heritage site. Sanctions against the government of longtime President Omar al-Bashir over Sudan’s long-running internal conflicts limit its access to foreign aid and donations, while also hampering tourism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed a huge push for telemedicine, a means by which patients can "visit" their doctor without risking exposure to illness in waiting rooms and health care facilities. Social engineers in our government view this as being a large part of our health care delivery in the future. They have convinced many doctors that this as a good thing, effusively praising this new iteration of the doctor-patient experience as necessary and laudable. But common sense has to tell you that this trend is not in anyone's best interest. There is a reason doctors are taught how to...

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board ripped President Trump’s “embarrassing Electoral College hustle” in an op-ed Wednesday as he digs in on his refusal to concede last month's election to President-elect Joe Biden. The op-ed comes as Trump pushes congressional Republicans to go along with a long-shot bid led by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) to object to the Electoral College vote when it comes before Congress next week. The effort is not likely to secure a majority in either chamber. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Wednesday became the first senator to back the move to overturn the election results. “Republicans...

Why are we surprised? What did you expect? Yes, our days get more bizarre almost every hour, but these are the predicted last days. Did you think they would be a piece of cake? A walk in the park? Just like a sunny day at the beach? Think again. Frankly, I think we’re in the calm before the storm! So here’s my new list of things I never thought I would live to see: I never thought I would see the day when… *Israeli media would say that folks in that country could not buy or sell without a vaccine....

[Note: This piece contains heavy video content.] More than 2/3rds of the GOP House caucus gets it. They understand that the Trump support base – which makes up 80-90% of the entire GOP base of support – is not ever going to accept this clearly fraudulent outcome. They understand that, if the Republican Party wants to survive intact over the coming 2-4 years, they had better raise their voices in objection to this un-American outcome at the very least. Meanwhile, in the Senate, just one Republican seems to understand what is happening here in the party’s voter base. Normally astute...

I was raised in the work-for-the-same-company-all-your-life-and-retire-with-a-gold-watch era. Today, however, we’re told we’ll have several careers over a lifetime; indeed, if you stay at the same job for more than a few years you’ll be viewed as dull and stagnant. I was ahead of the curve—for over 50 years I worked as a broadcaster, journalist, church pastor, primary and secondary school teacher, and a university professor. Perhaps only Sinatra did more, singing of being a “puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.” Some jobs got more respect than others. Starting out in radio, a fellow disc...