Free Republic

Prayers up for continuing progress and success!! FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly...

Hunter Biden used the perks of the vice presidency — parties, meetings with Joe Biden and flights on Air Force Two — to pursue business deals with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim while his father was in office, records show. Hunter’s involvement with Slim, at one time the world’s richest man, commenced soon after a White House state dinner the magnate attended in May 2010, along with Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, to honor Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The diary on Hunter’s abandoned laptop shows he and Slim were both guests at a State Department luncheon during Calderon’s visit, which...

When focusing on fighting the growing dominance of China, the United States would do better than to place too much trust in Great Britain for support.On May 22, history was made when the U.K. Carrier Strike Group embarked on its first ever mission. With “nine ships, 32 aircraft, and 3,700 personnel,” as Seapower magazine reported, this was the “largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave the U.K. in a generation.” In an op-ed for the The Wall Street Journal, James Marson and Max Colchester, discussed the significance of the operation, and the ways in which the “British military...

Arizona law generally makes it very easy to vote. Voters may cast their ballots on election day in person at a traditional precinct or a “voting center” in their county of residence. Ariz. Rev. Stat. §16–411(B)(4). Arizonans also may cast an “early ballot” by mail up to 27 days before an election, §§16–541, 16–542(C), and they also may vote in person at an early voting location in each county, §§16–542(A), (E). These cases involve challenges under §2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) to aspects of the State’s regulations governing precinct-based electionday voting and early mail-in voting. First,...

A return to normal after the end of restrictions appears unlikely after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that some “extra precautions” will be needed. Giving the clearest indication yet that he hoped for Stage 4 of unlocking from pandemic measures to be completed by July 19th, the prime minister said on Thursday that he would set out the terms of returning freedoms to Britons in the next few days. During a visit to a Nissan plant in Sunderland, after the Japanese car manufacturer announced it would be building its next-generation of electric vehicles and batteries in the English city, Mr...

America’s racist!!! One would think, if America is to be considered a racist country, we’d want to know the definition of the word. And who better to get that definition from but a giant of the anti-racist movement, Ibram X. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Antiracist. Here’s Mr. Kendi’s definition of racism: "I would define it as a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity that are substantiated by racist ideas…" Apparently Dr. Kendi missed that day in kindergarten where the teacher said “You cannot use the word you’re trying to define in the definition...

Ivory Hecker, an astute and brave local Fox reporter, interviewed Dr. Joseph Varon, despite Fox threatening her job if the unedited interview went live. It's worth listening to in its entirety, but here's some of what it says.It's certainly not the first time Dr. Varon's been interviewed. He's talked with the media 1,640 times, including Hecker's interview. The first 1,639 interviews were edited to exclude specific information about his successes in treating hospitalized COVID patients.This doctor is certainly no quack. He's chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He invented the MATH+ protocol for treatment, and...

The court said it would not take up the florist's appeal, leaving the state court rulings against her intact and again ducking the hot-button issue. The Supreme Court on Friday declined to wade into the contentious issue of whether businesses have a right to refuse service for same-sex wedding ceremonies despite state laws forbidding them from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. The court dodged the wedding question three years ago in a case involving a Colorado baker who said baking a cake to celebrate a same-sex marriage would violate his right of free expression and religious beliefs. The...

Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time Matthew 9:9-13 Friends, our Gospel for today is the simple but magnificent story of the conversion of Matthew. I urge you to read it and meditate upon it this week, for it’s about you. The Bible says that Jesus told Matthew, “Follow me.” The call of Jesus is meant to get into your mind, and then past your mind into your body, and then through your body into your life, into your most practical decisions. And then we hear that Matthew “got up and followed him.” The verb used here in the Greek is the...

On Kamala Harris, looks like some sort of salvage operation has begun for this Biden administration shipwreck. That's evident enough in two stories from swamp-beltway media, using named and unnamed sources, both of which say the same thing: There's this from Axios: Top White House officials are mobilizing to defend Vice President Kamala Harris amid a gusher of leaks about dysfunction and infighting in her office. Driving the news: White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told Axios in a statement: "The President's trust and confidence in her is obvious when you see them in the Oval Office together." Biden...

VIDEOThe second best thing about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Arizona election integrity laws (which the media calls voter restriction laws) is the reaction it caused in the media. So in addition to standing up for the integrity of the state voting system, the SCOTUS also inadvertently provided us with very entertaining hilarious media freakouts. The SCOTUS cherry on top is revealed at the end of the video.

U.S. officials are sounding the alarm on China’s growing nuclear arsenal. Specifically, the State Department voiced concern over the rapid expansion. During a press briefing on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price urged Beijing to reduce its nuclear arms. According to a Washington Post report on Wednesday, Chinese officials have started construction on roughly 100 new missile silos located in a western desert region of the country. Price said the build-up of China’s nuclear arsenal is concerning and is raising questions on their intentions.

Even as more Americans seem optimistic that life is returning to normal, half of U.S. adults are worried that another surge of COVID-19 infections could threaten the country, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll. With states dropping pandemic restrictions and the most transmissible coronavirus variant so far on the rise, the concern about another wave is most pronounced among 74 percent of Democrats. Forty-nine percent of U.S. adults are not concerned, including 72 percent of Republicans, reflecting the pervasive partisan divide that has hindered the nation’s pandemic response.

WASHINGTON, Monday, July 1. I think I have obtained a sight of the small live coal that made so much compromise smoke a few days since. There has been talk of a compromise, and I have no doubt there is a compromise sentiment in the Cabinet, and in the army, or rather a desire to arrange with the rebel States for a peaceful separation. Those entertaining this feeling sought to ascertain the public pulse, and they put out this compromise suggestion as a feeler -- very much as some good loyal men, acting under Gen. MCDOWELL's orders, send up rockets...

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have both said their two-dose vaccines are protective for at least six months

Welcome to The Bicycle Thread. A monthly PING List for bicycle enthusiasts to share experiences, information and ideas.

A Republican-led drive to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, will go to a special vote on Sept. 14, the lieutenant governor declared on Thursday, shortly after the state's top election official certified the recall petition. The race to oust Newsom 2-1/2 years into his four-year term is shaping up to be chaotic, as several high-profile Republicans - including transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner - have said they will run to replace him.

When cruise ships depart from Florida’s ports in the coming months, some won’t require passengers to get the most effective pandemic life preserver there is — a Covid-19 vaccination. That’s because of new legislation Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed that bars businesses from requiring customers to show proof of vaccinations. The law goes into effect Thursday and opponents say it could threaten the recovery of an industry that is vital to the state’s economy, in addition to making it difficult for cruise ship companies to put some teeth into the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination recommendations. At...

As parents across America take to school board meetings to challenge state-sanctioned racism being taught in schools, the National Education Association (NEA) wants them to know it’s just about had it with their interference. But it’s hard to swat away thousands of parents who refuse to capitulate when their children are at stake. So NEA has vowed to go after organizations that it believes are instigating the uprising. This strategy fundamentally misinterprets what’s going on in the nation’s school districts. It will fail. The issue, of course, is Critical Race Theory (CRT), sometimes called (as by the NEA) antiracism. The...

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on Friday claimed that the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was worse than the 2012 Benghazi attack. McCaskill said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she does not want to “minimize the loss of life in Benghazi” but argued the Capitol riot was “more foundation-shaking to our democracy.” She noted that Benghazi had numerous investigations and called into question why Republicans are refusing to investigate the riot the same way they did Benghazi.