Free Republic

A growing number of office landlords are defaulting on loan payments as the rise of remote work causes more corporate tenants to rethink long-term leases... The delinquency rate on office loans increased by a quarter percentage point to 1.83% last month .. While the number is still relatively low, the increase was the sharpest of its kind since December 2021. ... The shift away from traditional offices has impacted major firms. Brookfield Asset Management recently disclosed a default on more than $70 million in debt on two office towers in Los Angeles. In Manhattan, real estate firm RXR is reportedly...

The left often attacks Tucker Carlson as a demagogue, but I find that he is mostly on target. This infuriates the Left, as his audience dwarfs their mainstream media outlets, including the sought-after younger viewer demographics. This spells trouble for Democrats, who have been able to pull the wool over the eyes of younger voters for decades (myself included, in my teens and 20s, with a very brief relapse 10 years ago). Most young, college-educated people haven’t experienced the real world of taxes, inflation, affirmative action, and other challenges of adult life. The Biden administration’s incompetence and wokeness at all...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)Jesus said to his disciples: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.” Matthew 6:1One thing that offers us worldly satisfaction is public praise. We often want others to notice us for what we have accomplished. We want to be admired and can often go out of our way to let others know how much good we are doing. How about you? Do you regularly seek to elevate yourself in the eyes of others?In the Old Testament, the seeking of...

A GROUP of conservative Primates declared on Monday that they no longer recognised the current Archbishop of Canterbury as the de facto leader of the Anglican Communion. A statement, issued on Monday morning on behalf of a dozen Primates connected to the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), says that the Church of England has “chosen to break communion with those provinces who remain faithful to the historic biblical faith” by allowing blessings for same-sex couples (News, 9 February). The statement follows a virtual meeting chaired by the Archbishop of South Sudan, the Most Revd Justin Badi, last week....

ormer President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, but a compliment he paid to a Democrat in a message about DeSantis upset some of his supporters. In two posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump railed about the coverage DeSantis recently received on Fox News during the former president's recent trip to New York City. One of the messages included an aside about Charlie Crist, who ran on the Democratic ticket against DeSantis in Florida's gubernatorial race last year. "Florida was doing GREAT long before Ron DeSanctus got there. People are fleeing from New York...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemMark 6Jesus Sends Out the TwelveThen Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake...

Well-known political scientist Sergei Markov in his Telegram channel said that Zelenskyy will prepare a gift for Putin on the anniversary of the start of the NWO. It is assumed that the capture of the armed forces of Transnistria will take place on February 23, the day of the Soviet army. “And massive crackdowns on supporters of Russia. They have nowhere to run – they are surrounded. Apparently, all this has already been agreed with the United States and Moldova. And everything was approved today at a meeting in Warsaw with the participation of Biden and Sandu. And this is...

The men and women who were headed for the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 1 and 2) loved Jesus dearly. They had been taught in the school of Christ by the Lord himself. Some had performed miracles, healed the sick and cast out demons. They were compassionate and soul-loving, but they weren’t yet qualified to be his witnesses. They had been nearby when he sweat drops of blood, seen him hanging on the cross, and stood at his empty tomb. They had even watched in awe as he ascended into heaven! Yet they still were not...

"Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:11). Bearing spiritual fruit is the acid test of a true believer. After facing life-threatening situations, people often say, "I saw my entire life flash before my eyes." That's the picture we get in Philippians 1:11. "The fruit of righteousness" refers to what is produced in you as you operate in love, pursue excellence, and maintain your integrity. It includes every attitude and action consistent with God's standard of what is right. "Having been filled" speaks of something that happened in the past with continuing results....

CNN - Something to consider as you search for happy hours to celebrate National Margarita Day: The delicious concoction’s main ingredient is threatened by changing weather and new strain on the agave plant’s vital pollinator – the bat. Agave-based liquor like tequila and mezcal was the fastest growing spirits category in 2022, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the US. Analysts even say it might soon surpass vodka as the best-selling liquor in the country. But scientists from around the world have made it clear that climate change-fueled water shortages will continue to put enormous pressure on food production....

51 minute video interviewing doctors and nurses, doing a kind of too long, didn't read about the scamdemic. It's heartbreaking and angering to watch.

Former President Trump will travel to East Palestine, Ohio Wednesday and is set to donate thousands of gallons of cleaning supplies and more than a dozen pallets of water to the community as it grapples with the aftermath of the train derailment that led to a large release of toxic chemicals, Fox News Digital has learned. A source familiar with the former president’s plans told Fox News Digital that Trump will travel to East Palestine on Wednesday to meet with members of the community and community officials. Joining the former president throughout his visit will be East Palestine Mayor Trent...

A recurring theme here at Manhattan Contrarian is that the “smart” people who seek to run the world are not really very smart. They may have gotten high scores on the SATs, and they may have attended fancy universities, but when it comes to practical knowledge of how the world works they are often complete idiots. A special case of this phenomenon is that the highest gurus of high finance — the people who are most trusted to have mastered basic numeracy, and who get to pass out trillions of dollars of public funds — are completely innumerate. I come...

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said Wednesday he will seek reelection to a fourth term in 2024, a boost to Democrats’ hopes of maintaining a seat in the Republican-leaning state as they try to hang on to their narrow Senate majority.

There was perhaps only one truth spoken during Vladimir Putin’s two-hour state of the nation address: that Russia would suspend its participation in the New Start treaty with the US. The rest was yet another a trip down the rabbit hole into the Russian president’s parallel universe Putin continues to make veiled nuclear threats, and did so again in this address when he stated that western declarations on ensuring a strategic defeat for Russia were an existential threat “to which we know how to react”. Threats to the existence of the Russian state allow for a first-use nuclear strike in...

President Joe Biden is wrapping up his whirlwind, four-day visit to Poland and Ukraine by reassuring eastern flank NATO allies that his administration is highly attuned to the looming threats and other impacts spurred by the grinding Russian invasion of Ukraine. Before departing Warsaw on Wednesday, Biden will hold talks with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, a collection of nations on the most eastern parts of the NATO alliance that came together in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. As the war in Ukraine drags on, the Bucharest Nine countries’ anxieties have remained heightened....

340,533 views Feb 18, 2023 Entire Wuhan Institute virus database taken offline on 12 September 2019 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/... https://www.researchgate.net/publicat... On 12 September 2019 the Wuhan Institute of Virology, took its entire virus database offline The renewed publication of this virus database would be an important step towards clarifying the origin of the current ‘corona pandemic’. WHO abandons plans for crucial second phase of COVID-origins investigation https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158... Maria Van Kerkhove, epidemiologist, WHO in Geneva, Switzerland There is no phase two Plan for phased studies, that plan has changed The politics across the world of this really hampered progress on understanding the origins...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and the Chinese Communist Party's foreign policy chief Wang Yi enter a hall for their talks in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday. The visit by Wang Yi, the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, comes as the conflict in Ukraine continues to upend the global diplomatic order. Wang held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and met with President Vladimir Putin. Speaking at the start of their talks, Lavrov noted that “our ties have continued to develop dynamically, and despite high turbulence in the global arena we have shown the readiness to speak...

Not long after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, a year ago this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found himself in a safe room beneath Kyiv’s government complex with the voice of the Belarusian president booming over the phone. Alexander Lukashenko, one of the Kremlin’s key allies, was inviting a delegation of officials to Minsk to negotiate an end to the war that Russia had launched just three days earlier, according to Andriy Sybiha, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, who was in the room for the call. Zelensky was incensed at the invitation to another negotiation — recalling...

The United States could bar tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border from claiming asylum under a proposal unveiled on Tuesday that would be the most wide-ranging attempt yet by Joe Biden’s administration to deter unauthorized crossings. Under the new rules, the US would generally deny asylum to migrants who show up at the US southern border without first seeking protection in a country they passed through, mirroring an attempt by the Trump administration that never took effect because it was blocked in court. The measure, while stopping short of a total ban, imposes severe limitations on...