Free Republic

She is really spewing and sputtering tonight. Live video here.

China's unprecedented crackdown on billionaire businessman and Alibaba founder Jack Ma had raised quite a few eyebrows last year and made headlines all over the globe. Now, a news report suggests that the Chinese government may not be done with its crackdown on major tech firms in the country. It has come to light that another Chinese businessman is facing scrutiny for not complying with the country's anti-trust rules. Ma Huateng (also known as Pony Ma), the founder of Tencent Holdings, met with China's anti-trust watchdog officials earlier this month to discuss compliance at his group. Two people with direct...

A 29-year-old man is behind bars, charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a mother of six while driving down Interstate 95 in Lumberton. Dejywan Floyd, 29, of Lumberton, was arrested early Thursday at an apartment complex, the Robeson County Sherriff’s Office said in a news release. Julie Eberly, 47, was riding in the passenger seat with her husband on March 25. The couple, who are from Pennsylvania, were on their way to Hilton Head Island to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Floyd is charged in the fatal shooting of Julie Eberly, 47, of Manheim, Pennsylvania. The arrest comes...

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed back Friday on various criticisms directed at him by lawmakers, former federal officials and others during a wide-ranging interview on "Your World". Fauci, 80, told host Neil Cavuto he doesn't understand why people see him as a partisan figure when his job is to help develop medical responses to viruses like COVID-19. "You know, Neil, I've been a symbol to them of what they don't like about anything that has to do with things that are contrary to them, anything outside of their own realm," he said. [cut] The National Institute...

For instance, public opinion is strongly against perhaps the most controversial provision of Georgia’s new law: the prohibition on giving food or water to people waiting in line to vote. In a different, March 29 poll, YouGov found that only 18 percent of Americans thought handing out food and water should be illegal, while 69 percent thought it should be allowed. On the other hand, the public strongly supports one of the other major stipulations of Georgia’s new law: the ID requirement for absentee voting. That latest YouGov/The Economist poll found that Americans support requiring a photo ID in order...

Seven people have died from unusual blood clots after getting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, the medicines regulator has confirmed to the BBC. In total, 30 people out of 18 million vaccinated by 24 March had these clots. It is still not clear if they are just a coincidence or a genuine side effect of the vaccine. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says the benefits continue to outweigh any risk. However, concern has led to other countries including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada to restrict the vaccine's use only to older people. The data released by...

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~Canteen Music Dedication Presents~~ The Music of Motown ~ *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time & effort...

Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao has emerged from training camp and senatorial duties to speak out against the recent spike in anti-Asian attacks in the United States. The 42-year-old (professional record 62-7-1, 39 KOs), who is reportedly in talks to fight WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford in June, tweeted a message against discrimination in four different languages. "Stop attacking Asians who can't defend themselves! Fight me instead," he added in Tagalog, Chinese and Korean alongside a photo of himself against images of elderly Asians who had been attacked in the US and their perpetrators. Pacquiao announced in February that he...

The governing bodies of faculty and undergraduate students at Cornell University have voted against a proposed partnership with China’s Peking University (PKU), citing the state-run institution’s poor record of academic freedom and human rights. In a 16-39 vote with 20 abstentions, the Cornell Faculty Senate on Wednesday rejected a non-biding resolution endorsing a proposed dual-degree program between Cornell and PKU, one of the 76 top-tier universities directly administered by the Chinese Ministry of Education. The proposed two-year program, according to the website of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration (pdf), would allow graduates to obtain a master of management in hospitality...

Let us be the first to warn you of the first of what promises to be a long and calculated series of scams to shamelessly profit from the forced COVID lockdowns, while at the same time attempted to hold us hostage to foreign entities. It’s called the ‘Well Health Safety Seal’, there is hundreds of millions behind it, and it is as evil as the day is long. Using radically far Left Liberals like Robert De Nero and Lady Gaga wielding their ‘star power’, the ‘Well Health Safety Seal’ contains what I call absolutely threatening language to every business owner...

An Asian man spending the day in Central Park with his wife and young son was sucker-punched by a stranger in an unprovoked attack, according to cops and a new report. The 38-year-old victim and his family were inside the park around 1 p.m. Saturday when the suspect approached them by the Hernshead Rocks on the Upper West Side, according to police and ABC 7. “You can tell that something just wasn’t right,” the victim, who did not want to be identified, told ABC 7. “He was sorta pacing back and forth through this area and he was just kind...

A recent corruption case that has taken mainland China by surprise involves a senior CCP official from northeastern China’s Liaoning province, whose family was found to own 2,714 properties in the name of operating family businesses. Xu Changyuan, a former high-ranking CCP official, was involved in mafia-linked assets worth more than 10 billion yuan (about $1.52 billion). Xu leveraged his authority to aggressively harvest money for his family businesses, based on China’s state media reports. A case in point was a property in Ganjingzi district, Dalian city, Liaoning province that he helped his brothers flip. They earned 500 million yuan...

Is President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package worth it? Experts are warning the tax hike cancels out the benefits. Scott Hodge, president of the conservative-leaning think tank Tax Foundation, said in a report, “the premise [of Biden’s infrastructure plan] is that the economic benefits of government infrastructure spending outweigh the economic harm from an increase in corporate taxes.” But he notes studies show otherwise.

Hunter Biden has thrust himself back into the limelight. At this point, you have to seriously question whether he’s a masochist. Or he just needs the money. Could go either way. Prince Biden began promoting his to-be-released memoir, “Beautiful Things,” starting with an excerpt from the book recounting, in part, the attacks he faced from President Trump during the 2020 campaign.

Christopher Eccleston transformed Doctor Who forever. Sixteen years ago, the actor—headlining a bold reboot of the beloved British sci-fi classic that had been off screens for nearly a decade—presented a tortured, compassionate take on a Time Traveler without a home. Then, as quickly as we met him, he vanished, transformed into a new person.

Chief editor of Chinese state-owned Global Times said on Wednesday that Taiwan must be unified by force and veterans should force young people to fight on the frontlines. “I must go to the [China-Taiwan] battlefield. As a veteran, I will rejoin the army when required,” Hu Xijin, chief editor of the tabloid answered a netizen on Chinese social media Weibo. “I will catch you [the young male netizen] and send you to bomb the bunkers on the island as a member of the commando. If you dare to run away, I will shoot you from behind,” Hu added. Taiwan faces...

The Biden administration made history last week, but not the kind that most Americans will celebrate. In a tight, near party-line vote, the Senate confirmed the president's transgender pick for deputy secretary of HHS, Rachel Levine -- whose idea of "health care" is sterilizing and mutilating young children. "This is a scary time in American history," former HHS leader Roger Severino said. And after Levine's first statement on the job, that might be an understatement. "As I prepare to take my oath of office and begin serving as assistant secretary for Health," the former Pennsylvania health official said, "I would...

Thirteen states launched legal action against the Biden administration over a provision in the CCP virus relief package that prohibits states from using the funds to pay for tax breaks. The Democrats’ $1.9 trillion relief package to combat the impacts of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (pdf), carries a provision that says states cannot use relief funds to offset decreased tax revenue that is due to any tax cuts—including by cutting rates, rebates, deductions, credits, or otherwise—and any tax delays.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans agree that voters should show photo identification before being allowed to vote, an Associated Press poll suggests. Seventy-two percent of Americans participating in the survey, conducted between Mar. 26 and 29, said they are in favor of requiring all voters to provide photo ID in order to vote. Another 14 percent said they neither support nor oppose the measure, while the remaining 13 percent said they are against such a requirement. The poll was conducted among 1,166 adults living in the United States via internet, landline, and cell phones, with a plus or minus 3.6 percent...

Days ahead of Easter and two weeks before Ramadan, the World Health Organization on Wednesday cautioned against crowded indoor celebrations that could trigger a fresh surge in coronavirus infections. “In countries experiencing widespread community transmission of the virus, virtual meetings, postponing or reducing such gatherings should be seriously considered,” said a WHO statement. “Regardless of location, any religious service should be held outdoors wherever possible or be limited in size and duration, with physical distancing, ventilation, hand hygiene and mask use, as appropriate,” it added.Better would be for people to mark the festivals with those they lived with and avoid...