Free Republic

President Biden claimed Friday that his uncle Frank Biden won the Purple Heart for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II — but there’s no evidence of the award and key details of the story are chronologically impossible. The 80-year-old commander-in-chief has a habit of sharing false or embellished personal anecdotes to build a connection with his audiences and told his latest apparent tall tale during largely unscripted remarks. “My dad, when I got elected vice president [in 2008], he said, ‘Joey, Uncle Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge.’ He was not feeling...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A transgender woman in New Hampshire filed a discrimination complaint Friday against the manufacturing company where she works as a machinist, challenging its exclusion of gender-transition health coverage. The complaint against Barrington-based Turbocam, which makes parts for the HVAC, automotive, aviation and space exploration industries, asks the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission to investigate and cross-file it with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Bernier is represented by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, a Boston-based advocacy group. The complaint alleges that Turbocam and Health Plans Inc., which administers Turbocam’s self-funded health coverage plan, is violating employment...

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports, rejecting arguments by four cisgender runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender athletes. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld a lower court judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the policy. The panel said the four cisgender athletes lacked standing to sue — in part because their claims that they were deprived of wins, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities...

France have been hit with a virus that could see the team's starting centre-back pairing miss the World Cup final, sources have told ESPN. According to sources, Raphael Varane has small symptoms of the virus and fellow defender Ibrahima Konate has not left his room after feeling unwell. France coach Didier Deschamps said they were taking precautions to stop a virus spreading through the squad after Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot missed the semifinal win over Morocco due to sickness. "In Doha, temperatures have fallen a little bit, you have air conditioning which is on all the time," Deschamps said...

This morning I discovered something *extremely* alarming happening in the car market, specifically in auto lending. I'm now convinced that there is a massive wave of car repossessions coming in 2023. Here's what I discovered (and what no one knows): Background: Over the past 2 years, many people took out exorbitant loans on cars. Car values were inflated (and frankly, still are to some extent). But many people simply had no choice and bought an overpriced a car. Well... Car valuations are now plummeting. Some cars have declined in value as much as 30% y/y. And these same people that...

President Biden on Friday signed a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through next week as congressional negotiators haggle over the details of a longer-term spending deal. Biden signed the bill upon returning to the White House from Delaware, where he’d given remarks about legislation to help veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits. The Senate on Thursday night voted 71-19 to pass the continuing resolution (CR), sending it to Biden for approval after it passed the House the night before in a 224-201 vote. The CR freezes funding levels through Dec. 23 to buy time for...

An elite Russian military brigade suffered so many losses while fighting in Ukraine that it was essentially "wiped out" and is expected to take a long time to rebuild, according to a new report. When it was first sent into Ukraine, the 200th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, stationed in northwestern Russia near its border with NATO-leaning Finland, had more experience, newer equipment, and better training than many other Russian units, The Washington Post reported on Friday. But despite these advantages, the 200th suffered greatly in the months of combat that would follow. Shortly after the invasion, units belonging to the...

The Santa Cruz Mountains will soon offer a slew of new trails for hiking and biking, the product of years of grassroots work to open thousands of acres of private lands to the public. The first new trails are at San Vicente Redwoods, a preserve near the community of Bonny Doon. The property was acquired as part of a campaign by conservation groups to safeguard what is one of the largest privately owned redwood forests in California. Formerly mined and logged by materials giant Cemex, the newly protected land is making its public premiere with about 8 miles of trails...

Corporate war machines lobbying for American dollars and human collateral — life really does imitate art. There’s a quote often attributed to Robin Williams which says, “Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers, then we know who owns them.” Over the years, creative minds have used the quip as inspiration for many a meme and cartoon: (tweet at link) But now, this joke is more than just a snarky idea floating around in the ether. This morning, Vox published a piece titled, “This DC party invite shows all the money to be made off the Ukraine war” — our...

DEAR ABBY: My sister doesn’t want children. I fully support her decision, and I’m happy she knows herself well enough to make it. She does, however, have what she refers to as her “fur babies.” She has a wonderful, generous heart and is very charitable. My children have been blessed by their aunt’s generosity. SEE ALSO Couple holding two parts of broken heart. Dear Abby: My wife left me for my best man My issue is: Lately, she has made a few comments about how I don’t bring holiday gifts for her dogs. It’s remarks like, “Well, my fur babies...

New documents reveal how the United States government used a secret Twitter portal to censor COVID-19 content that contradicted the government’s narrative. In its ongoing probe into Twitter’s censorship practices, America First Legal has obtained a fourth set of documents (pdf) exposing a secret Twitter portal, which U.S. government officials used to censor dissenting COVID-19 views in violation of the First Amendment. It’s a revelation Elon Musk described as “extremely concerning.” The documents reveal that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was collaborating with UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and Mafindo to mitigate “disinformation.” Mafindo is a Facebook...

'So you have a car? Come get it next time.'A customer posted security camera footage of a Domino’s delivery driver asking them for a tip as they handed them a pizza in a now-viral TikTok, angering some people in the comments. In the video posted by TikToker X (@user626366461) on Dec. 11, the Domino’s worker asks for a tip and when the person doesn’t immediately offer one, points out that the customer has a car. She then tells them to “drive” to get their pizza. The customer explains to the driver that delivery is more for her “convenience” and...

A judge in Maricopa County has ordered that Kari Lake’s petition to inspect ballots in the county from the 2022 mid-term election be granted. The Lake campaign will have to select a designate a ballot inspector and provide the court with contact information for them by Friday at 12pm. The inspection would begin on December 20, 2022 at 8am.

Remember when Martha’s Vineyard residents had to deal with illegal aliens for two days in September courtesy of one Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL)? This was after Labor Day and “the season” was starting to slow down. Suddenly, 49 men, women, and children appeared on the island. None of these liberals had ever seen anything like it — perhaps because they are on a literal island secluded from the Democrat policies causing the flood of illegal aliens. Nonetheless, those hearty New Englanders dealt with the newcomers for a paltry 48 hours the best that they could. For that Herculean task, The...

Governor Gordon recently announced that he has banned the use of the social media app TikTok from all state-issued electronic devices and networks, in order to address cybersecurity concerns that, his office says, have been raised by the app's foreign ownership, and the potential influence of foreign governments. Governor Gordon sent a memo to all state employees explaining his decision, stating that "TikTok will be permanently removed, and access blocked, from all state government electronic devices and networks. This ban extends to all state-issued cell phones, laptops, tablets, desktop computers and other information technology equipment capable of internet connectivity." With...

President Joe Biden signed the Democrats’ same-sex marriage bill amid fanfare and celebration, but an attorney-led Christian ministry that says it won nearly 50 cases defending marriage as between one man and one woman before the Obergefell decision asserts the passage of the legislation can now “actually create the perfect scenario to overturn” the Supreme Court’s 2015 5-4 ruling. Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act (RFMA) Tuesday. Earlier in December, the Senate voted 61-36, with the help of 12 Republicans, to pass the measure. The House then voted in favor of the legislation, 258-169, with the help of 39...

Tweet See new Tweets Conversation Elon Musk @elonmusk And soon, ladies & gentlemen, the coup de grâce Translate Tweet 11:28 AM · Dec 16, 2022

The Department of Energy will purchase 3 million barrels of oil to replace withdrawals from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) amid high energy prices, it announced Friday. The Biden administration presented the purchase, which follows a bidding process that began in October, as an opportunity to buy the oil at a fixed price and repurchase it for less than the average of $96 per barrel it sold for. “Relative to conventional purchase contracts that expose producers to volatile crude prices, this new approach, when used at scale, can give producers the assurance to make investments today, knowing that the price...

President Biden’s approval rating sits at 44 percent, according to a new poll published Friday, remaining generally consistent with other recent polling on the president. A poll conducted by Morning Consult for the Bipartisan Policy Center found Biden with an approval rating of 44 percent, compared to 53 percent who said they disapproved of his job as president. And while Biden’s approval rating remains underwater, the poll also found that 47 percent of respondents surveyed said they had voted for the president in 2020, while another 43 percent had voted for former President Trump. Eight percent surveyed said they did...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” may be the most famous sentence in the English language. In Texas, however, the seminal sentence came from Larry McMurtry’s In a Narrow Grave, when he remarked, “Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas without eating a chicken fried steak.” Little did McMurtry know that the frontier for chicken fried steak was closing when he penned those words in 1968. The blue-plate mainstay is now an endangered species with the best offering in these fair parts coming from, of all places, an Italian restaurant on...