Free Republic

Do a quick scan of TikTok and you’ll find trendy young people casually blowing hundreds or thousands of dollars on clothes and jewelry, often set to the clattering, bass-boosted din of Florida rapper Saucy Santana’s fittingly titled “Material Girl.” Plenty of those influencers get the goods they flaunt for free. But if you don’t have the followers, or the up-front cash to blow, TikTokers have a tip: Just use “buy now, pay later” services, the hottest new way to take on debt. You may have seen some of these names — Klarna, Sezzle, Zip (formerly Quadpay), Afterpay and Affirm —...

Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins has suggested that Elon Musk loosening speech restrictions on Twitter would be “incredible and dangerous narcissism”. “Is it a great success that a multi-billionaire would be now deciding what is appropriate for people to exchange by way of discourse? I think it can hardly be described as anything other than a manifestation of an incredible and dangerous narcissism,” the 5’3″ octogenarian opined at what was supposed to be a climate change conference at Dublin City University, clearly referring to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter but declining to identify the South African entrepreneur by name

Much of the U.S. shale industry recently reported higher profits than in the same quarter a year earlier, but companies aren’t reinvesting more in production—indeed, some have let U.S. output slip as they focus on paying investors. Nine of the largest U.S. oil producers this week said they shelled out a combined $9.4 billion to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases in the first quarter, about 54% more than they invested in new oil developments. Limited spending, supply-chain constraints and harsh winter weather in some regions, analysts said, took a toll on shale production, which has increased only modestly so...

Billionaire George Soros donated $1M to Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign just a few days after she qualified to run in March. He donated the funds through a super PAC. Soros made the donation through Democracy PAC II to One Georgia, Abrams’ leadership PAC… …There are limits to how much an individual or business can contribute to a candidate. Leadership PACs get around those limits. They can raise as much money as they can for a candidate. This year Soros is giving his super PAC, Democracy PAC II, $125M to sway elections across the country. He is contributing to both Democrat...

For the last two days I’ve felt an uneasy sense of grief, or of a heavy pressure on my heart. At first I could not figure out the cause of it. Nothing unusual was wrong in my personal life. My loved ones were safe and well, thank God. The battle for liberty was ongoing, as it has been for over two years, but I was used to the rigors and stresses of that. What was the matter?I was just driving with Brian over Taconic foothills, and through the vast early-Spring expanses of the beautiful Hudson Valley. The sun was shining....

EXCLUSIVE - Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will team up on Thursday and Friday with Dave McCormick, one of the front-runners in Pennsylvania’s crowded, combustible, and expensive GOP Senate primary. [cut] Cruz’s two days of campaigning with McCormick will come just ahead of Pennsylvania’s May 17 primary, and it also comes less than a week after former President Donald Trump headlined a rally in western Pennsylvania with McCormick’s rival for the nomination, Mehmet Oz, whom Trump endorsed just a couple of weeks ago.

“The U.S.-China relationship will be the most defining bilateral relationship for our lifetime,” David McCormick, the co-CEO of hedge fund powerhouse Bridgewater Associates and a former White House official, told a room at the Bloomberg Invest New York Conference on Tuesday. Speaking on the ongoing and increasingly hostile trade war between the world’s two largest economies, McCormick, a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs under George W. Bush, warned that both the U.S. and China have “a lot of incentives” to reach a reasonable trade deal, but the latest developments in the negotiation are pushing things in the wrong...

The Constitution of the United States was and is rooted in the experience and the thought of earlier times—which is a major reason why the American Constitution has not perished or been supplanted by some different political system. No civilization could survive for a great while if somehow its political constitution should be swept away and no tolerable new constitution substituted. Deeply rooted, like some immense tree, the American Constitution grew out of a century and a half of civil social order in North America and more than seven centuries of British experience...The aim of a good constitution is to...

Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates is doing far better in China than in the rest of the world.The $148 billion money manager raised about 900 million yuan ($136 million) for its second China fund in September, doubling assets, according to people familiar with the matter. Investors were partly drawn to its All Weather China strategy fund that boasted an annualized return of about 22% for the 22 months from inception to the end of July they said, declining to be identified discussing private matters.While the size of the onshore business remains tiny, the latest fundraising lifted assets under management to about...

From mushrooms to seaweed, a beginner’s guideBefore our walk through the woods, Caitlin Wild places one hand on her heart and one on the Earth. “It’s just sending this place some real heartfelt gratitude, in recognition of all the wild ones, seen and unseen,” she says. “Extending our gratitude to the native people who call this place home and stewarded this land for thousands of years before us. May we walk humbly, remembering our place in the family of things, and listen to the wisdom of the wild ones.” Wild, the founder of Mountain Sea Adventures, started guiding edible and...

After a brief show of treating illegal immigrants the same as Americans, the Biden Administration has abandoned its policy of mandatory covid vaccinations. "We tried telling them that they wouldn't be able to go anywhere in the United States without proof of vaccination, but the vast majority still refused to be injected," said a Border Patrol official. "The practical thing is we have no leverage over them. We can't threaten their jobs because they have no jobs. We can't threaten to send them back because the President doesn't want them sent back. All we can do is put them on...

Walgreens publishes data on their Covid-19 tests. When people took the test, they asked if their vaccinated. In both of the last two updates, the unvaccinated tested positive at the lowest rate. People with three doses tested positive at the highest rate. Rates of COVID Positivity 4/27 – 5/3 Not Vaccinated – 16.3% 1 Dose – 21.5% 2 Dose > 5m ago – 26.7% 2 Dose <= 5m ago – 20.2% 3 Dose > 5m ago – 30.1% 3 Dose <= 5m ago – 20.8%

The Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade sent shock waves throughout our country when it was leaked this week. If the ruling stands, abortion access would be decimated in huge swaths of the country, and the rights of Americans everywhere will depend on whether they happen to live in a blue state or in a red state. Beyond being a violation of the human rights of pregnant people, limiting access to abortion is an imposition of governmental Christianity on us all. And it infringes on the religious liberty of every American Jew.

At Bloomberg’s “The Year Ahead” summit, CEO David McCormick considers the persistent challenges America will face even after a recovery from the pandemic — rising inequality and competition for global leadership — while emphasizing how uncertainty in global markets and economies will force investors and policymakers to prepare for a wide range of potential outcomes.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- A Pennsylvania armored car company has settled its lawsuit that accused the San Bernardino County sheriff of illegally seizing over $1 million in cash it was transporting from medical marijuana businesses. The settlement for no financial compensation announced Friday allows Empyreal Logistics to resume services after two transports of money were stopped and cash was seized in November and December, The Sun of San Bernardino reported. Deputies said in a search warrant that there was probable cause a felony had been committed when the vehicle was stopped Nov. 16 and $700,000 was seized. Although California is...

BEIJING—For weeks, Beijing has teetered on the edge of a hard, Covid-induced lockdown. For the most part, citizens are unruffled, confident that the restrictions that have paralyzed Shanghai for six weeks are simply unthinkable in the capital.

The Modern Survivalist LIVE STREAM NOTIFICATION - Matt Bracken and Host Fernando Aguirre. Note: Videos are taken down from youtube as soon as the livecast is over and they are moved to Odysee. This link will only work for the livestream. Use the link below for the Odysee backup channel to find the archive and view later. Broadcast from Spain and Florida, U.S.A. Join us today as we talk with Matt Bracken about current events and how to be better prepared! Make sure to join early and leave your questions in the chat section. Always a fast-moving show. Wide-ranging discussions...

The five-vote majority needed in the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey remains intact months after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's leaked draft majority opinion was written, according to a report. The leaked draft majority opinion penned by Alito is dated February 10 and has almost certainly changed multiple times in the almost three months since it was written, but three conservative sources close to the Court say that the votes supporting the decision remain unchanged, according to reporting from the Washington Post. The justices set to join Alito's opinion include Clarence Thomas, Neil...

A group of smash and grab robbers targeted a Virginia eyeglass store outside of Washington, D.C., stealing more than $20,000 in merchandise. "Detectives are following up on leads and are aware of similar incidents throughout the National Capital Region," Capt. Frederick Chambers, Commander of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Fairfax County Police Department, said in a press release on the matter Thursday. Police released video footage of the scene showing four Black males between the ages of 17 to 23 wearing gloves, masks, and hoods or hats while stealing from a MyEyeDr. store in Alexandria.

Is Joe Biden actually Count Olaf from “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events“? Here is one of the latest bits of propaganda from The White House. This graphic shows that The Biden Administration has the best employment record of any President since Ronald Reagan. Of course, Democrats are expected to get slaughtered in the midterm elections thank to Biden’s inflationary policies where everything is rising dramatically in price, including cost of living. But what is the truth behinds the jobs added under Biden? Let’s look at jobs added. Jobs added were humming along nicely until Covid struck and governments...