Free Republic

It’s important to understand that SVB’s failure didn’t arise from risky startups doing risky startup things.It’s painful for me to watch so many smart pundits and politicians on both the right and the left buy into a media narrative that seeks to blame “wealthy speculators” or “tech bros” or venture capitalists for a banking crisis that ultimately started in Washington. Let me explain.If you want to understand the context for the crisis, look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair’s March 6 testimony — a week before Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse — where he explains that banks were sitting on...

Since Missouri, Florida, and West Virginia’s recent withdrawal from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) — a widely used voter-roll management group with ties to left-wing activists — last week, America’s legacy media have been in freak-out mode. In uniform fashion, leftist outlets have labeled the legitimate concerns raised by the aforementioned states as “conspiracy theories” promoted by “election deniers” and “right-wing media.” As The Federalist’s Victoria Marshall reported, publications like The New York Times and Associated Press have gone out of their way to run grossly dishonest headlines such as “G.O.P. States Abandon Bipartisan Voting Integrity Group, Yielding to...

Arkansas is now reliably a daily butt of late-night talkshow hosts, national journalists and all of your out-of-state friends. The evergreen question is: What insane thing did our state government do today that people outside the Natural State aren’t going to be able to wrap their heads around?

As with many other states, New York is still in the process of attempting to sort out its overly-bloated budget for the fiscal year, but it’s not going well. Governor Kathy Hochul submitted a draft budget six weeks ago, but the state legislature has been bogged down, beset with infighting over the details. One of the chief complaints from the legislators (and many of you will find this hard to believe) is that Hochul has drifted “too far toward the center” since winning a full term of her own last year. With that in mind, the amendments that are currently...

1 MINUTE TWITTER VIDEO: September 2, 1987 - Donald Trump bares his big heart as he explains what the United States is doing (failing people) compared with what the United States could be doing (protecting our people)Have you seen President Trump's powerful 4 minute video message? Don't miss it!A NATION IN DECLINEQ is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation.Q describes this...

Not too long ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene raised a lot of eyebrows when she began teasing the possibility of a “national divorce.” While nobody wants to see another disastrous civil war (with much better weapons), she posited that the nation is splitting in two along social lines with the two sides embracing ideas and morals that are so far apart that there may not be any compromise left to be found. I’m still not entirely sold on that concept, but one example that might support the phenomenon has popped up in Vermont and it brings us back to the ongoing...

China has been a very close and friendly nation to Israel and supporting the Palestinians ... as a matter of fact it has already began in that direction" On Amanpour and Company Mar 15, 2023

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol on Wednesday told lawmakers the agency does not have operational control of the U.S. southern border -- as he also said that migration levels were at "crisis" levels in parts of the border. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz was speaking at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in McAllen, Texas and was asked about Chairman Mark Green about Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ prior claims last year that the Department of Homeland Security has operational control of the border. "Does DHS have operational control of our entire border." "No sir," Ortiz responded.

Joseph Maldonado-Passage, or “Joe Exotic the Tiger King,” as some may refer to him from his Netflix show, has decided to join the 2024 United States presidential race. Maldonado-Passage, 60, is currently serving a 21-year federal sentence after being convicted on numerous charges, but he claims that his incarceration time will not stop him from becoming the nation’s future 47th president. He is running as a Libertarian. Mr. Exotic urged fans to look past the fact that he is “incarcerated and gay” and to help him “take back the country.” …

[EXCERPT] The Department of Defense received 155 formal reports of sexual assault at three military academies during the 2021-22 school year — and officials suspect that hundreds more went unreported.The figure comes from a mandated anonymous survey conducted at service academies to address the likelihood that many young men and women are reluctant to come forward about sexual assault and harassment — an issue that has plagued the military for years…The survey found that 21.4 percent of female students and 4.4 percent of male students indicated that they experienced unwanted sexual contact, from groping to rape, in the past school...

You may have noticed by now that folks on the left defending the effort to trans children in K-12 schools are still arguing that it is not happening. They claim conservatives and libertarians worried about such a thing are simply being bigoted reactionaries, using children to demonize members of the LGBTQ community.Despite numerous reports detailing how educators and members of school staff have promoted transgender ideology among children and have even helped many of these students “transition” to the opposite sex, progressives claim this is nothing more than a myth. But now, parental rights advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE)...

You have probably heard that the city of San Francisco is going to pay out billions of dollars to black American residents as a form of reparations. Indeed, the city’s board of supervisors voted unanimously to shell out $5 million for each black resident living in the city regardless of whether their ancestors faced slavery and/or Jim Crow.This development mirrors what the state of California is attempting to accomplish by ascertaining what type of reparations package the Golden State can concoct to address the evils of discriminatory laws passed during the Jim Crow period since there was never slavery in...

Video description: A man trying to steal a massive truck got more than he bargained for when the owner of that truck caught up to the thief.

The U.S. military is rushing equipment to the battlefield and training Ukrainian forces at a rapid pace, ahead of a major offensive against Russia expected by late spring.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin projected a sense of urgency on Wednesday after a virtual meeting of the multinational Ukraine Defense Contact Group, saying that “Ukraine doesn’t have any time to waste.”“We have to deliver swiftly and fully on our promised commitments,” Austin said. “That includes delivering our armored capabilities to the battlefield and ensuring that Ukrainian soldiers get the training, spare parts and maintenance support that they need to use these new systems,...

Dr Bradford David Ferrick, 32, appeared at a Boston federal court on Tuesday and was ordered held without bail over the disturbing allegations. Raids at his apartment in Amherst and at his parents' $1.1 million Winchester mansion are said to have turned up thousands of child porn images held on 60 electronic devices. Ferrick is also accused of secretly recording medical examinations on children as young as six using a piece of jewelry that concealed a camera lens. During one recording obtained by police, he was heard discussing a young male patient's genitals with the boy's mom, although they cannot...

Something is Rotten in Buenos Aires After ten years of avoiding Argentina, the baffling and mysterious excuses are no longer convincing. Why won’t Bergoglio visit his homeland?Jorge Bergoglio has traveled all over the world to 59 countries during his decade long pontificate. One would think that he would have returned to his home country by now. Popes are expected and encouraged to return home to their countrymen who are proud that one of their own sits on the Chair of Peter. It’s a memorable and jubilant celebration for the Catholic faith and the home country, as the pontifical native son...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14

A mega-prison in El Salvador brought in a second wave of suspected gang members who will now serve out their sentences in the notorious facility that has been criticised over its 'severe conditions.' The second group of 2,000 inmates were moved today amid tight security to the new Izalco prison, the largest mega-prison in the Americas, which was built to accommodate more than 40,000 gangsters. Footage shows the heavily tattooed and barefoot men, dressed only in white shorts, being hurriedly moved around with their heads bowed and hands cuffed behind their backs. The latest look inside the facility revealed that...

Infants and children 6 months through age 4 who received the three-dose primary series of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are now eligible for a fourth dose — Pfizer’s bivalent booster shot. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday amended the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine for the younger age group, but only for those children who received the three-dose series before the FDA authorized Pfizer’s bivalent Omicron booster as the third shot in the primary series. Under the amended authorization, children can receive their fourth shot two months after completing the three-dose primary...

Controversial exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui — an associate of former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon — was arrested Wednesday in New York for allegedly orchestrating a complex $1 billion fraud scheme that duped online followers with promises of outsized investment returns. Guo allegedly used some of the money raised through his company GTV Media and other entities to buy a 50,000-square foot New Jersey mansion, a $37 million yacht, a $3.5 million Ferrari for his son, a $140,000 Bosendorfer piano and two Hasten 2000T mattresses that cost a whopping $36,000 apiece. Prosecutors seized more than $650 million in...