Free Republic

Biden’s economy and mortgage market are like a bad wine hangover. Thanks to inflation and The Fed’s tightening to fight inflation, mortgage purchase demand is down a staggering -42.4% since April 2021. Mortgage applications decreased 5.7 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 12, 2023. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 5.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance...

The city is unique in the country, and in the Western world, in that it guarantees all comers shelter immediately, no questions asked. And they keep coming. This week, after a pandemic hiatus of more than three years, one of New York’s marquee hotels will reopen its 1,025 rooms to guests. The Roosevelt Hotel, celebrating its centennial next year, has earned a place in Gotham history. The stately mid-rise limestone and brick edifice—designed as part of Grand Central Terminal’s “Terminal City” complex, just steps from the North American long-distance train hub—was home to Guy Lombardo’s band for three decades, hosted...

Criticizing George Soros is not anti-Semitic Rabbi Spero: “Most ironic and disingenuous is casting Mr. Soros as a symbol of Jewish peoplehood when, in fact, Mr. Soros has spent a lifetime working against Israel’s defense and Jewish survival and needs..." PLEASE CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE IN THE LINK BELOW... https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/316446

The twelve apostles included "Philip" (Matt. 10:3). Pessimism will blind you to the sufficiency of God’s resources. It's been said that an optimist sees a glass half full; a pessimist sees it half empty. An optimist sees opportunities; a pessimist sees obstacles. In one sense Philip was an optimist. He recognized Jesus as the Messiah and immediately saw an opportunity to share his discovery with Nathanael. In another sense, Philip was a pessimist because on occasions he failed to see what Christ could accomplish despite the apparent obstacles. On one such occasion Jesus had just finished teaching and healing a...

Jesus didn’t mess around when he talked about fear. His core message was “I, not your fear, am in control.” Are fear and anxiety part of our God-given makeup? Oddly, yes. Fear alerts us to danger, and anxiety is our physical response to those alerts. Life from birth to grave is filled with such moments. While on earth Jesus felt the anxiety of those to whom he ministered. His words about fear were designed to not only calm them but also to help them grow in their spiritual walk. We are all plagued by fear at one time or another....

Last year’s “CRT” is this year’s “SEL.” For those normal folks who don’t obsessively follow education news, “social-emotional learning” (SEL) is the latest progressive fad in schools to ignite the culture war. An analysis of not just SEL’s faults but also the source from which it springs—university schools of education—does much to elucidate the cause of many American educational woes. SEL may be one fad, but it’s representative of systemic flaws in the overall system. At its best, SEL is something of a secular character education stripped of virtue. No longer do students learn of prudence, temperance, and courage but...

“They no longer teach about the birds and the bees but about the birds and the birds and the bees and the bees and the bees that used to be birds and the birds that used to be bees.”

It's time for all reasonable people to just stop consuming garbage products when company executives presume to lecture them. I missed out on Women’s History Month this year. It was in March, and I didn’t even know about it until I saw a recent woke beer ad campaign that went viral from yet another major brand, Miller Lite.Two months ago, pre-Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light marketing debacle, Miller Lite released a 90-second ad giving America a feminist lecture on how women helped invent brewing and instructing us that women in bikinis ads for beer are bad.The campaign, which features comedian Ilana...

17 May 2023Wednesday of the 6th week of Eastertide Basilica Santa Restituta, Naples Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(I).First readingActs 17:15,22-18:1 ©I proclaim the God you already worship without knowing itPaul’s escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could. So Paul stood before the whole Council of the Areopagus and made this speech: ‘Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters, because I noticed, as I strolled round admiring your sacred monuments, that you...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put tremendous strain on the strategic partnership between South Africa and the United States. Since the invasion, the South African government has been unwilling to demand that Russia unilaterally put an end to hostilities and withdraw its forces from the sovereign territory of its neighbor. This is despite the fact that South African foreign policy is supposed to be conducted in accordance with the values and principles set forth in the constitution. This includes the advancement of human rights and promotion of democracy. The South African government has not appeared especially bothered by this...

Last week, a Florida teacher reported she received a disciplinary letter from the Department of Education. She is facing disciplinary action for showing the Disney movie “Strange World”. The movie has LGBTQ themes and a parent complained when their child reported viewing the movie at school. The teacher in question was interviewed this morning on CNN. Florida 5th grade teacher who showed students an LGBT-themed Disney movie: "Ignorant" of parents to complain. Your "rights as a parent, those rights are gone when your child is in the public school system" pic.twitter.com/YkJbaPQOPk — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 16, 2023 In the...

To protect the ever-brilliant Sen. John Frankenstein — er, Fetterman (D-Pa.) — a Washington Post reporter rewrote a muddled Fetterman ramble and posted it as a quote. Apparently, journalism now means covering up government idiocy by pretending an official is actually coherent.Paula Bolyard @pbolyard The actual quote: "Shouldn't you have a working requirement after we sale [sic] your bank—er, with billions of your bank? Because they see me [sic] pre-preoccupied when then [sic] SNAP, uh, in the requirements for works [sic] for hungry people, but not about protecting the— protecting tax papers [sic] you know, that will bail the matter...

NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA suspended Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon for two games Tuesday for comments Hammon allegedly made to former player Dearica Hamby about her pregnancy. Hammon was suspended without pay after the monthslong investigation stemming from Hamby's allegation that she was bullied and manipulated for being pregnant. The WNBA found Hammon violated league and team respect in the workplace policies. The league also rescinded the Aces' first-round pick in the 2025 draft for violating league rules regarding impermissible player benefits. Las Vegas didn't have a 2024 pick in the first round because of a prior...

Ukraine is close to retreating from Bakhmut. This could happen anytime now, but it has to happen fast enough before exit routes are closed down. Predictions of a timetable vary, but the Ukrainians should evacuate Bakhmut no later than the weekend, provided they can. There are still a couple of roads open to exit the city, secured in part by Ukrainian army attacks on the flanks of the city. But these roadways and fields will not stay available if the Wagner forces pour in fast. Monday night the Wagner forces stormed and took the two most fortified and defensible parts...

Biden's Open Border Hurts Black Americans Most of All "...Black Chicagoans of the South Shore neighborhood came out in droves to reject a recent proposal to convert a public high school building into a migrant facility. With chants of "build the wall" and calling the city council to task for "making decisions about us, when none of you live here," Black American South Side residents took a stance against more crime from unvetted migrants, siphoning financial resources away from Black citizens, and imposing unnecessary competition for jobs..."

Russia has opened the home port of its Pacific naval fleet to Chinese commercial shipping, a sign of deepening ties between the two nations amid the Russia-Ukraine war. The Russian port of Vladivostok opens to China on June 1 for “cross-border transport of domestic goods,” according to China’s state-run Global Times newspaper on Monday, which cited the General Administrations of Customs China, the nation’s customs ministry.

A bill passed in Colorado would clear the way for all workers to accept cash tips. Some businesses, including Walmart and McDonald's, don't allow employees to accept cash gratuity. Americans are encountering more requests for tips, even when it isn't clear who is serving them. Top editors give you the stories you want — delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Workers at businesses like McDonald's and Walmart could soon be able to accept cash tips under a proposed law before the Colorado legislature. If enacted, the bill would keep an employer "from taking adverse action against an employee who...

Hungary has blocked the disbursement of the eighth instalment of the European Peace Facility (EPF) for arms to Ukraine. Hungary blocks Ukraine from getting EUR 500M for weapons The instalment to be disbursed is worth EUR 500 million. It was due to be paid next Monday. The Italian newspaper ANSA reports that Hungary did not approve the grant because it demanded guarantees that the EPF would not use the money exclusively to arm Kyiv, but would maintain its “global horizon” in the future. The European Peace Facility was created by the European Council to help Member States better strengthen international...

In 2020 the California legislature passed AB 3121 which created a 9-person task force to study California’s "complicity in slavery." The task force would also be authorized to make recommendations to the state legislature about payments – also known as reparations. Even if one could prove the dubious theory that the economic state of Blacks today is a result of America’s legacy of slavery, the state of California wouldn’t be the first place or even the second place to focus on this slavery. Since 1850 when California became a state its Constitution expressly forbid slavery, and it never supported the...

Prayers up. FR is funded solely by contributions made by the liberty loving patriots who love and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No advertisers, no outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. Definitely no government subsidies or tax breaks. No 501c or other IRS non-profit status. This means no commercial ads. No annoying pop-ups. No ad tracking. No mail campaigns. No spam. No third-parties -- not even the IRS -- trying to control what we do or say. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the support of God,...