Free Republic

Valerie Biden Owens, younger sister to President Biden, told reporters Wednesday that her brother is "absolutely" going to run for re-election in 2024. In an interview with "Good Morning Britain," Biden Owens praised her brother's performance. She went on to claim the president was a perfect fit for the situation the U.S. currently finds itself in. "Joe is the right person at the right time for the right job," Biden Owens said. "There's lot of things still to do." Pressed by her interviewer on whether she believed Biden would be running for re-election in 2024 despite his low approval ratings...

Pardon the vanity posting, but I have a question about a refund that I wonder is a scam. I would appreciate your input. The story: I had a flight cancellation in March of 2020, a flight I had booked through CheapoAir I thought the money was gone, until a week ago, when I got an email saying they were processing my refund and needed 'additional information' and to please contact them. So I did. The CSR, after getting my refund number transferred me to a lady, in billing. I give my name and billing address, and she then wanted the...

[Catholic Caucus] A French Vatican observer ponders the ‘end of the regime’ My old friend Jean-Marie Guénois, the religion editor of Le Figaro, published a typically insightful appraisal of this pontificate last week, with the headline: “Challenged, deaf to criticism: the solitary ‘end of the regime’ for Pope Francis.” The Rorate Caeli site has a fine translation, but if you read French I strongly recommend the original, to capture the subtleties of Jean-Marie’s thoughts (not to mention the elegance of his prose style).Among the noteworthy observations:“Visions of the Church are opposed to each other and openly fight each other under...

No one has “done more to help the cartels” than President Biden with his embrace of radical open-border policies, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Wednesday, noting that Americans are “bracing” for the administration’s repeal of Title 42 and warning that his administration plans to bus illegal immigrants dumped in Florida to Biden’s Delaware. Americans are “bracing” for the Biden administration to end the Trump-era Title 42 at the southern border, which allowed agents to more easily turn illegal immigrants away. Last week, a federal judge in Louisiana extended the temporary restraining order preventing the Biden administration from ending...

Donald Trump has wielded the power of his endorsement in his bid to maintain his control over the GOP, and one of the first serious tests of its power came in the Republican primaries Tuesday. The results were mixed, but several high-profile Trump allies slumped to defeat. Most of the 26 Trump-backed candidates on the ballot Tuesday were running in safe seats, meaning that on paper, the results validated the former president's endorsement power. But in other competitive races, the results were less positive for Trump. In North Carolina, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who has built his political career on being...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Gov. Kathy Hochul Wednesday unveiled a package of several new gun control executive orders and bills that she says is a direct response to the mass shooting that happened in a Buffalo Tops on Saturday. One of her executive orders signed Wednesday will require State Police to file for an Extreme Risk Protection Order under New York State's Red Flag Law whenever they have probable cause to believe that an individual is a threat to themselves or others. Hochul is also pushing for the Legislature to pass a bill that would require semiautomatic pistols manufactured or...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Way Too Early,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) stated that one issue contributing to the national baby formula shortage is that “we’ve got a hiring crisis in this country.” And as a result, “FDA is having a difficult time hiring some of the people that they need.” Dingell said, “Well, some of us are introducing a bill that is going to invoke the Defense [Production] Act. Because we do believe that this is a crisis and we need to move everything we can to get going. As that Abbott plant reopens, there [are] some disturbing reports…so...

Health officials are considering extending the eligibility for a second COVID-19 vaccine booster dose to people under 50 amid a steady rise in cases, with the United States seeing a threefold increase over the past month. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had in late March authorized a second booster dose of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech SE vaccines for people aged 50 and older, citing data showing waning immunity and the risks posed by Omicron variants of the virus. "With regard to a fourth dose for those under the age of 50, that is going to require action from the...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will schedule a vote next week on legislation aimed at curbing domestic terrorism following last week's mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead, reports The Hill. "I announced to our caucus at lunch that we are going to file cloture on the domestic terrorism bill next week. And we hope our Republican colleagues will understand how important this is given what's going on in the country with replacement theory, with so much bigoted, bigoted voices on all of our news media, and we hope they'll join us," Schumer said Wednesday....

Nina Jankowicz, the author and researcher appointed to lead the Department of Homeland Security's new Disinformation Governance Board, resigned from the DHS on Wednesday, representatives for Jankowicz told Insider. The decision follows weeks of targeted harassment against Jankowicz from right-wing critics, as well as broad conservative criticism of the anti-misinformation initiative. "With the Board's work paused and its future uncertain, and [sic] I have decided to leave DHS to return to my work in the public sphere," Jankowicz said in a statement emailed to Insider via a spokesperson. "It is deeply disappointing that mischaracterizations of the Board became a distraction...

U.S.—A recent study has audited Joe Biden's Twitter followers to determine whether or not they are in fact real followers. The results have left the world stunned as everyone discovered half of his followers are somehow real people. "11 million of Biden's followers are real? That seems high," said Mike Vanders, a social media analyst. "The American people can't even follow what he has to say, much less follow him on Twitter." According to sources, most experts had estimated that maybe a dozen or so of the President's followers were real and that the remaining 22 million were all fake...

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently announced a number of new measures to rein in pricing at airports after a traveler saw beer being sold at LaGuardia Airport for $28 last year. Authorities said the Aviation Department has “significantly enhanced” compliance with the fair market pricing policy for goods sold in airport concessionaires. This means that no item should be sold above local “street prices” with a 10% maximum surcharge. The policy also requires vendors to offer lower-priced options. The most popular craft brewery in every state, according to Yelp Revisions to the Concessionaire Street Pricing...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In its first big win since the inauguration in 2021, the Biden Administration announced that the Disinformation Governance Board has narrowly outlasted failed subscription program CNN+. Citing the first bit of positive news for the White House, Disinformation Board head Nina Jankowicz announced her resignation, saying she was excited to continue fighting disinformation on TikTok by singing more lovely showtunes. "Lasting three weeks despite receiving billions of threatening memes from Russia-backed Jack Posobiec and his followers has only galvanized my resolve to fight disinformation," sang Jankowicz to the tune of South Pacific's "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa...

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) today confirmed a single case of monkeypox virus infection in an adult male with recent travel to Canada. Initial testing was completed late Tuesday at the State Public Health Laboratory in Jamaica Plain and confirmatory testing was completed today at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). DPH is working closely with the CDC, relevant local boards of health, and the patient’s health care providers to identify individuals who may have been in contact with the patient while he was infectious. This contact tracing approach is the most appropriate...

An emotional Nevada mom has gone viral after school board officials cut her mic temporarily as she read sexually explicit passages from a class assignment given to her high school daughter. Las Vegas news outlet KTNV confirmed Wednesday that Kandra Evans is the mother seen telling a Clark County School District board meeting that a teacher required her 15-year-old daughter to memorize the “pornographic” material for a class assignment. “This will be horrifying for me to read to you, but that will give you perspective on how she must have felt when her teacher required her to memorize this and...

A little over a week ago, when looking at the latest consumer credit data from the Federal Reserve, we were shocked to learn that in March, credit card debt soared by a record $52.4 billion, the biggest monthly increase on record and more than double the expected change. Summarizing our views on this historic surge in credit-fueled purchases, we said that “while this unprecedented rush to buy everything on credit at a time when there were no notable Hallmark holidays should not come as much of a surprise, after all we have repeatedly shown that for the middle class any...

WASHINGTON (AP) — COVID-19 cases are increasing in the United States – and could get even worse over the coming months, federal health officials warned Wednesday in urging areas hardest hit to consider reissuing calls for indoor masking. Increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are putting more of the country under guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that call for masking and other infection precautions. Right now, about a third of the U.S. population lives in areas that are considered at higher risk — mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Those are areas where...

... this is one of those times—extra warranties turn out to be worth every penny. One such decade-long warranty on a 2012 Kia Sorento expired last week. Thanks to a Reddit post by a mechanic at the dealership where the car was serviced, we know its unlimited-mile, 10-year service agreement enabled it to travel over half a million miles while supposedly going through nine engines. That's just the tip of the iceberg, too. Thanks to the extensive service records the owner kept, the repairs done to a Kia that averaged 60,800 miles a year are fully known, and it isn't...

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden embarks for Asia on Thursday, he’s facing a new risk at home for the economy and his Democratic Party: a global slowdown caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the pandemic shutting down Chinese cities and factories. The world economy can’t cast U.S. ballots. But it’s a hidden force in this year’s midterm elections and could influence whether Democrats retain control of the House and Senate. It’s an additional challenge that highlights the steep climb for Biden, whose approval ratings have plunged as prices for everyday goods in the U.S. have soared. Several...

Yep, we went there and unleashed the ‘deer in headlights’ image… While most blinkered investors ignored last week’s record surge in revolving consumer credit (i.e. credit card spending), this week’s Walmart and Target earnings brought it home to the rest of the country that the “American consumer is strong” or “consumer has best balance sheet ever” narrative imploded, crashing on the shores of a gigantically lopsided and divided national aggregate that hides the reality that most of America is unable to pay the ‘cost of living’ under Bidenomics 40-year-high inflation without resorting to the plastic. Additionally, we are hearing more...