Free Republic

Hunter Biden on Thursday admitted and then justified the Biden family’s multi-million dollar business with Chinese entities close to the Chinese Communist Party after years of denial. A spokesperson said: Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China. As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses. Hunter’s...

Francis came out against the criminalization of homosexuality before and after his recent trip to Africa, but bishops on the continent say that's just the pope's opinion, not Church teaching Just days before embarking on a pastoral visit earlier this year to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan, Pope Francis surprised some Catholics in Africa by saying homosexuality should not be treated as a crime. "The criminalization of homosexuality is an issue that must not be disregarded," the pope repeated to journalists on February 5 while flying back to Rome from the visit to the two African...

I held a press conference following my South Carolina speech. I called on GOP donor class favorites @RonDeSantisFL and @NikkiHaley to join me by 9 AM tomorrow in calling on the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to abandon the political persecution through prosecution of the 45th President https://t.co/UhXfV2ZroP pic.twitter.com/koSbMBwQRy— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) March 18, 2023

The Michigan legislature on Wednesday gave final passage to HB-4006 (full text) which repeals Section 750.14 and 750.15 of the Michigan Penal Code. These sections, which were enacted in 1931, criminalize abortion and require pharmacies to keep records of purchasers of abortion medications and of physicians prescribing them. The bill now goes to Governor Gretchen Whitmer for her signature. It is expected that she will sign the bill. WZZM13 News reports on the bill. An injunction against enforcement of Section 750.14 had previously been issued by the state Court of Claims (see prior posting) and the section was effectively overridden...

CV News Feed // An act of vandalism against a Catholic church in Connecticut over the weekend marked a grim milestone: The 300th known attack on a Catholic church in America since the spring of 2020. Police in Ledyard, Connecticut say a man broke into Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Saturday night and vandalized it by breaking windows and writing on the walls. They released surveillance images of the suspect and reported that the state’s hate crimes unit is assisting the investigation. CatholicVote has been tracking the attacks since the civil unrest that followed the death of George...

A local Los Angeles meteorologist suddenly collapsed while on live TV in a terrifying moment on Saturday morning. CBS Los Angeles weather woman Alissa Carlson Schwartz’s co-anchors had just cut to her to deliver her 7 a.m. weather report when she appeared to turn white and leaned forward uneasily on her desk. Schwartz tried to steady herself but suddenly her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She slowly slumped forward until her head nearly hit the table. Her co-anchors, Nichelle Medina and Rachel Kim, initially don’t seem to notice. After a couple of seconds, Kim let out an...

There’s zero reason for DeSantis to stay silent. Complete political miscalculation. Gonna bleed more support in the polls.— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽 (@GavinWax) March 18, 2023RON DeSILENT— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) March 18, 2023DeSantis committed career suicide today. It's a wonderful sight to behold! DeSimps are jumping ship for Vivek (and others!) faster than you would believe! https://t.co/FHrxPbOy1X— Paul Ingrassia (@PaulIngrassia) March 18, 2023You know I'm 100% Trump 2024 but I still love DeSantis as my Governor - but if DeSantis doesn't come out soon and make a bold statement against this political witch hunt against Trump - the...

FRANKFURT, Germany (OSV News) — The final assembly of the German Synodal Way took place in Frankfurt March 9-11, where 230 bishops and lay representatives discussed issues such as blessings for homosexual couples, the ordination of women, a relaxation of mandatory celibacy and greater church involvement for lay people. The agenda, with 10 resolution texts, reflected the will of the local church to “arrive at visible changes,” the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said in Frankfurt March 9. “This church deserves that we do not leave it as it is,” the German news agency KNA reported...

As if the banking industry doesn’t have enough problems, there’s also Jes Staley. The former chief executive of Barclays, and before that a JPMorgan bigwig, reminds us that the legacy of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is still with us, thanks to Epstein’s extensive connections with the powerful and irresistible suspicions about the many who attended his parties, flew on his private jet or visited his private Caribbean island. Mr. Staley, who once ran JPMorgan’s private bank, has now seen his ex-employer turn on him after he was named in a lawsuit as an eyewitness to an Epstein victim’s abuse....

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.

MSNBC contributor and presidential historian Michael Beschloss appears on "MSNBC Reports," March 18, 2023. Credit: ScreenshotIt’s been quite an end to the week already, hasn’t it, readers? First, on Friday night, we got word that law enforcement officials were preparing for the possibility of the Manhattan D.A.’s office filing an indictment against former president Donald Trump — including his arrest.We also got a reaction from Trump himself, who hinted that the arrest might come next Tuesday and called for protests in their wake, as we reported earlier on Saturday.Hard on the heels of Trump’s reaction was House Speaker Kevin McCarthy...

I have a new study out, titled “Constraining Renewables is a National Need”, that provides a simple reason why net zero is impossible. It is simply impossible to provide enough energy storage to make renewables reliable. The headlong rush to replace thermal power generation with renewables must therefore be constrained. Congress, FERC and NERC must act to prevent disaster

The timing of the reported indictment about to drop against President Donald Trump can only be called suspicious, given the Stormy Daniels issue has been lying fallow for years, with President Donald Trump now a declared candidate for the 2024 presidential nomination.It’s about the perp walk and the theatrics. Just like they tried the Jan. 6 Committee prior to the midterms, this is going to be the continuing thing that they will throw out there to attack Trump and the Republicans in the presidential race. It’s about the optics to move the middle/the independents away from Republicans.But what about the...

The US Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 in the country’s coastal Guayas region. Its centre was about 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of Guayaquil, which has a metropolitan area of more than 3 million people. The Ecuadorian president, Guillermo Lasso, in a televised address said the earthquake killed 12 people. In a tweet, he also asked people to remain calm. The Peruvian prime minister, Alberto Otárola, said a four-year-old girl had died from head trauma she suffered in the collapse of her home in the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador. Cristian Torres, head...

One entrepreneur says the bank was offering ‘basically subprime business loans.’ ... If government funds it, they will come. That’s an overlooked story line in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. If Washington wants to point fingers, it should aim the biggest digit at itself. ... We serve those creating positive environmental change,” SVB’s website brags, noting that the bank worked with some 1,550 companies in the “climate technology and sustainability sector.” Most of these companies weren’t filling some vital market need. Rather .. SVB was beloved for its willingness to offer “banking services to startups that often weren’t profitable,...

On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton settled a sexual harassment lawsuit by making an $850,000 payment. The settlement with Paula Jones, reached without the suit going to trial, heaped fuel on Clinton’s impeachment proceedings by the Republican-controlled House. (He was acquitted in a subsequent Senate trial and completed his term in office.) In the aftermath of the settlement payment, most of which went to Jones’ attorneys, Robert S. Bennett, Clinton’s attorney, maintained that Jones’ claim was baseless, and that Clinton agreed to settle only to end the lawsuit and move on.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have taken on significantly more debt to buy vehicles. This is especially true for Gen Z and Millennials, who the Federal Reserve believes may have borrowed beyond their means.In this infographic, Visual Capitalist's Marcu Lu visualizes data from the Fed’s most recent consumer debt update.Aggressive BorrowingThe first chart in this graphic shows the growth in outstanding car loans between Q2 2020 (start of the pandemic) to Q4 2022 (latest available).We can see that Americans under the age of 40 have grown their vehicle-related debt the most. It’s natural for Gen Z (ages 11-26) to have...

There’s a growing divide between the rank-and-file officers of the FBI and upper management, according to FBI agent-turned-whistleblower Steve Friend, and it’s those at the top who are pushing a political agenda.“I spent close to nine years in the FBI, spent a good chunk of my time just keeping my head down and working the cases in front of me,” Friend noted in a March 14 interview with NTD News, The Epoch Times’ sister outlet.“There are a lot of agents that sort of share that sentiment and just want to drive the mission forward. Unfortunately, there’s a big disconnect between...

One man said he received 13 deliveries in one day, none of which he ordered. His neighbors had similar stories. The deliveries seem to be focused on Range View Avenue, and they’ve been coming at all hours. A resident said the deliveries started about two weeks ago. “It was bag after bag after bag, sometimes three at a time, 3 in the morning, 5 in the afternoon,” he added. One neighbor even put a “no deliveries” sign on his front door, but the surprises kept coming, up to 10 bags a day. San Francisco-based Uber told the Los Angeles Times...

Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) signed a bill banning abortion clinics across the state as Republicans continue their fight to protect the life of unborn babies. The bill, now a statewide law, will require abortion clinics to shut down their doors by 2024 or when their medical licenses expire, whichever comes first. The bill also bans women from having the procedure after 18 weeks of pregnancy. Under the new law, all abortions will be forced to take place in a hospital where the procedure can be monitored by doctors who will adhere to the 18-week rule. "Starting January 1, 2024, inducing...