Free Republic

Heartaches By The Number … for American households and mortgage lenders as The Federal Reserve begins FINALLY removing monetary stimulus. Mortgage applications decreased 2.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 27, 2022. The Refinance Index decreased 5 percent from the previous week and was 75 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 14 percent lower...

There’s only one rule in D.C. the Justice Department consistently enforces—all laws and norms exist to preserve and extend the Democratic Party’s monopoly over key institutions. Kevin Clinesmith must feel like an idiot for pleading guilty without a trial after a D.C.-area jury acquitted Clinton co-conspirator Michael Sussman for his role in the plot to frame Donald Trump for colluding with the Russians, supposedly to steal the 2016 election. Sussman’s D.C.-based jury which featured partisan Democrat donors rendered a quick “not-guilty” verdict. While the Left undoubtedly sees the acquittal as another “lawfare” victory against the bad orange man, that victory...

WASHINGTON, Saturday, May 31. A dispatch received at the War Department states that a brigade of our troops, preceded by four companies of the Rhode Island Cavalry, under Major NELSON, entered Front Royal yesterday morning, at 11 o'clock and drove out the enemy, consisting of the Eighth Louisiana, four companies of the Twelfth Georgia, and a body of cavalry. Our loss is eight killed, five wounded, and one missing, all from the Rhode Island Cavalry. We captured six officers, and one hundred and fifty privates. Among the officers captured are Capt. BECKWITH WEST, of the Forty-eighth Virginia; First Lieut. ORMMELL,...

Natalie Genise with some good info and questions. The BOARD of this A.I. over #Uvalde Students...

What started with drag queens reading in libraries has become a grooming plague across America. In 2015, drag queens reading in libraries suddenly became a “thing.” While I see these men as grotesque appropriations of womanhood, they were sold as cute, sparkly people who make reading fun. Once the camel’s nose was in the tent, drag queens performing for children started appearing everywhere, not just in libraries where weird parents intentionally bring their children, but at nightclubs and across schools where children are captive audiences. It’s become so endemic that Libs of TikTok has put together a seemingly endless thread...

The United States and Europe could experience fuel shortages this summer that could be worse than the 1970s oil crisis as demand ramps up for travel season, the head of the International Energy Agency warned. “When the main holiday season starts in Europe and the US, fuel demand will rise,” Fatih Birol told Der Spiegel. “Then we could see shortages — for example, in diesel, petrol or kerosene, particularly in Europe.” Birol said the current energy crisis could be worse and longer-lasting than the shocks of the 1970s. “Back then it was just about oil,” he said. “Now we have...

On Thursday, The New York Times revealed new evidence debunking a longtime conspiracy theory among Trump supporters about the January 6 Capitol insurrection: that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was deputized as an FBI informant to instigate the attack. "The claims, made in congressional hearing rooms, on Fox News and at Mr. Trump’s political rallies, have largely been based on a video taken just before violence erupted at the Capitol, showing Mr. Epps at the barricades outside the building whispering into the ear of a man named Ryan Samsel," reported Alan Feuer.

A female news anchor wonders why hordes of men didn't rush to defend a woman from harassment on the New York subway. On May 28, Sky News Australia posted a video titled "New York bearing signs of 'societal decay.'" The video shows a man (who seems as if he is on drugs) entering a train car and sitting next to a young woman. He then touches her without consent, grabs her, drags her around a bit, and generally is an extremely unpleasant nuisance. He eventually leaves her alone and proceeds to try to kick out one of the windows. During...

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So much for the good guy with a gun. That, you will recall, was NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre’s preferred solution to America’s epidemic of firearms violence. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun,” he said, “is a good guy with a gun.” He said this on Dec. 21, 2012 — one week after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left dead six adults and 20 children ages 6 and 7. Americans were grieving and demanding action, and this was his answer. The “good guy with a gun” would set things right. To no one’s...

The Biden administration’s approach to the issue of Taiwan and China is clouded in confusion. There is a debate about whether to end the U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward the island of Taiwan and replace it with strategic clarity. President Biden in recent remarks has stated that the United States will militarily defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack or invasion. Administration officials have had to “walk back” the president’s comments, stating that U.S. policy has not changed from “strategic ambiguity.” The Biden administration’s approach to this issue is, unfortunately, clouded in confusion. That has not always...

<p>"An observation that I had, every single child who was, or adolescent, who was truly blocked at Tanner stage 2, has never experienced orgasm. I mean, it's really about zero."</p><p>At a recent talk at Duke University on "Trans & Gender Diverse Policies, Care, Practices, & Wellbeing," surgeon and "trans affirming" doctor Marci Bowers, who transitioned at the age of 38, admitted that children who undergo transition before puberty will never have adult sexual function or experience orgasm. ADVERTISEMENT "An observation that I had," said Bowers, "every single child who was, or adolescent, who was truly blocked at Tanner stage 2," which is the beginning of physical development, when hormones begin their work of advancing a child to adulthood, "has never experienced orgasm. I mean, it's really about zero."</p>

The greatest enemy of America’s financial future is not any foreign nation, government regulator, or dangerous ideologue. The existential threat to America today is the “woke” financial establishment. It is presently politicizing business and weaponizing investment in policies that will have a devastating effect on America and the world. Big business has always tended to be politically liberal. Over the decades, major companies have supported causes that seemed to work against their self-interest. Such action has rarely prevented them from registering profits or jeopardizing stockholders’ investment. Many thought that by groveling to these leftist causes, they might buy the support...

Precisely because I was born in a Norman Rockwell painting and have already lived past my allotted span, it is exceedingly embarrassing and bitter to realize that, on my watch, the left has taken possession of the Democrat party and, through that party, has seized control of the Executive Branch of the federal government, which today constitutes the greatest existential enemy to the American Republic. Nevertheless, there is a path back, and Justice Alito has provided the way. We live in a bewildering time, not because events are unclear or cause and effect uncertain, but because the status quo is...

Last week, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s, R-Iowa, “Border’s Unused Idle and Lying Dormant Inventory Transfer (BUILD IT) Act.” Scott joined U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Steve Daines, R-Mont., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, as co-sponsors.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation on Monday to essentially scrap the handgun market in the country. “We’re introducing legislation to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership. What this means is it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer, or import handguns anywhere in Canada.” “In other words, we’re capping the market for handguns.” “Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives,” Trudeau added, according to Reuters. In the same speech, he announced that law enforcement would begin cracking down on...

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - It’s irritating when scammers call our cell phones several times a day but some con artists are so convincing that victims might do something unthinkable. The threat of arrest can rob you of common sense. “He essentially kept me in a state of stress, so I was not able to think about what I am doing,” said the warrant scam victim. Scammers tell victims they can pay off a warrant with cash cards. Then to make it more convincing they have victims drive to a law enforcement office. There they discover there isn’t a warrant and...

Two doctors have told the New York Times that transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has a “biological advantage” over her opponents. Thomas, a biological male who competes against collegiate female athletes, made national headlines after he won the women’s 500-yard freestyle in March. Mayo Clinic doctor Michael J. Joyner, who studies the physiology of male and female athletes, recognizes the competitive advantages transgender athletes like Thomas hold over their female counterparts. Transgender swimmer UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas (Screenshot) Although prepubescent girls develop faster than young boys, any competitive advantage is destroyed at the onset of puberty. “You see the divergence immediately...

For the past several months, a White House-led team of economic specialists has marked each day in the same way: With a painstaking, state-by-state examination of gasoline prices and the intricate market forces pushing them relentlessly upward. Senior officials and others close to President Joe Biden view those prices as the cost that most directly affects voters’ everyday lives, and therefore their perception of the economy as well. As such, Biden and his top advisers fixate on them with an intensity that some aides describe as obsessive. White House chief of staff Ron Klain has grown particularly absorbed by the...

U.S. President Joe Biden has agreed to provide Ukraine with advanced rocket systems that can strike with precision at long-range Russian targets as part of a $700 million weapons package expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. The United States is providing Ukraine with high mobility artillery rocket systems that can accurately hit targets as far away as 80 km (50 miles) after Ukraine gave "assurances" they will not use the missiles to strike inside Russia, senior administration officials said.