Free Republic

It's good times for Venezuela's vile communist dictator, Nicolas Maduro.Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro on Monday and called out US sanctions against Venezuela as "extremely exaggerated."Maduro, who is seen as a controversial leader internationally, met Lula on his visit to Brazil. Maduro was greeted by Lula with a hug and back-slap in the presidential palace of Brasilia. Effectively now, Venezuela has been welcomed back into the community of civilized democratic nations, or at least, the community of BRICs and non-aligned nations, no longer a pariah state.Joe Biden sent out some of the...

Consumer confidence fell in May as Americans became more pessimistic about the labor market, on top of elevated anxiety over inflation. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 102.3 in May from 103.7 in April. It’s the fourth time in five months that overall U.S. consumer confidence has declined.

Critics have clearly responded to the movie with a collective “meh,” since that 67% score above is just a few percentage points away from the site’s “rotten” designation that starts at 59%. However, take a look at that near-perfect audience score. Quite a lopsided response here, don’t you think? The audience score is a very stellar 95%, based on more than 2,500 verified audience ratings (and that “verified” designation is important, which is why we’ll come back to it in just a moment).

Biden, Schumer, Yellen, and Brainard, luminaries in the leftist galaxy, spread fear of default. They focus solely on Treasury obligation default. Were they honest, these federal bureaucrats should also discuss default on exorbitant government spending on welfare and entitlement programs. Don't let them misdirect the argument to debt default only. These are two very different methods of default. It is irresponsible of these leftist luminaries not to look at both aspects of federal spending. When the Federal Reserve started printing dollars (called quantitative easing or Q.E.) in 2008, they used that $8 trillion of new money to expand federal spending...

A cursory examination of history reveals that the United States is mired in the same process that precipitated the collapse of the great empires of the past. The foibles and failures of human nature and their impact on the rise and fall of empires is amazingly consistent and the end result always inevitable. Can this nation avoid a similar fate? Empires are defined as great military and economic powers encompassing large occupied or controlled land areas. Although they vary greatly, they average around 250 years in duration. The United States will be celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2026. In 1976,...

Allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reportedly launched a super PAC to support his likely run for the presidency. The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that Christie's 2024 campaign kickoff is expected in the next two weeks. The political action committee, called Tell It Like It Is, will be led by Brian Jones, an aide who advised Sen. John McCain's presidential bid in 2008 and Mitt Romney's in 2012. In a statement to the Times, Jones said Christie "is willing to confront the hard truths that currently threaten the future of the Republican Party. Now...

On this date in 1431, 19 year old warrior maiden Joan of Arc was burned to death at the stake by English-dominated authorities in Rouen, Franc English Violence.

The 2024 election may still be over a year away but candidates are already throwing their hats in the ring. Mike Huckabee breaks down what he values in those he chooses to endorse and looks specifically at one candidate that he believes "trumps" all the rest! Don't miss Huckabee!

VIDEOS AT LINK.............. Disneyland Hires Grown Man with Moustache in Dress to Greet Little Girls at Bibbidy Bobbidi Boutique Disneyland has hired a grown man wearing a dress to greet young girls at the resort’s Bibbidy Bobbidi Boutique. In a video posted on Twitter by Jason Jones, the grown man wearing a moustache and a dress is seen greeting little girls as they walk into the dress boutique in Disneyland. Disneyland Resort states the “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique offers magical makeovers for royalty-in-training ages 3 to 12.” Watch The video quickly grabbed the attention of Twitter users; here is their reaction:...

Temperatures as low as -2.7C in Queensland Coldest May on record for Bankstown, NSW, with 0.7C High-pressure system to ease from Tuesday SNIP

About 25 NATO peacekeepers were injured in clashes with Serbs protesting against Albanian mayors taking office in Serb majority municipalities in the north of Kosovo, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo KFOR said in a statement. "While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices," KFOR said.

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

Lowest low in the past year was $139.30 on 6/17/22 Stock on Friday dropped below this to closing of $138.93 Still dropping.

S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) today released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released today for March 2023 show a continuing recovery in housing prices, as all 20 major metro markets reported month-over-month price increases. “Two months of increasing prices do not a definitive recovery make, but March’s results suggest that the decline in home prices that began in June 2022 may have come to an end," Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, said in a statement. "That said, the challenges posed by current mortgage rates and...

Russia has issued an arrest warrant for US Senator Lindsey Graham, after an edited video appeared to show him celebrating Russian troops' deaths.The footage, which spliced together two separate moments, was posted by President Volodymyr Zelensky's office after the pair met in Kyiv on Friday.In it Senator Graham called aid to Kyiv as "the best money we've ever spent", noting Russian troops were "dying".The senior Republican said he would wear the warrant as a "Badge of Honor"."To know that my commitment to Ukraine has drawn the ire of Putin's regime brings me immense joy," Senator Graham wrote in a Twitter...

The man who allegedly crashed a truck into security barriers near the White House had notes about wanting to end democracy in the United States, a court filing shows. Prosecutors said in the Friday filing that the suspect, 19-year-old Sai Varsith Kandula from Chesterfield, Mo., revealed in an interview with Secret Service agents after he was detained that he had a “green book” in which he detailed his thoughts about the attack. “As I am familiar with the [unknown] of this country being a democratic nation, and this will no longer be the case,” Kandula allegedly wrote. “There shall be...

A remarkable study highlights a barely known exception to the generally accepted truism that black Americans’ poverty and unemployment rates are considerably higher than those of whites. Idaho is the only state in the nation where blacks earn more than whites, and their income also tops that of all other races and ethnic groups, according to the study “Idaho Blacks: Quiet Economic Triumph of Enduring Champions.” As the highest-earning racial group in Idaho, blacks earn 106% of the mean weekly earnings of whites and show an even higher earnings differential from other races and ethnic groups, according to data from...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more…” Mark 10:29–30Jesus’ statement above is in response to Peter who said to Him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” It was as if Peter were patting himself on the back, attempting to highlight just how much he and the other disciples had sacrificed to follow Jesus. And it...

Let's not sugar-coat it: Pakistan has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the world, data suggests Both the US and UK both ranked significantly lower, despite several risk factors READ MORE: These maps show how obesity rates have TRIPLED in past 40 years Americans might get a hard time for their high-sugar diets, but the US isn't even in the top 50 worst countries for diabetes, data shows. And despite Britons having a notoriously sweet tooth, the UK doesn't rank among the worst 100 countries when it comes to rates of the disease. Figures compiled by Our World In Data,...

NBC’s Chuck Todd dedicated the entire hour of Meet the Press on Sunday to bemoaning how the Supreme Court has turned into a partisan body.... After whining about how the Supreme Court has turned more conservative and partisan, Todd informed his audience of a “stunning fact.” This so-called fact was that “the last time a Republican-controlled United States Senate confirmed a Democratic President's Supreme Court nominee: Grover Cleveland administration nearly 130 years ago.”In reality, there have been 28 appointees by Democratic Presidents since Cleveland had his last nominee confirmed in 1895, and since then all but one have been appointed...