Free Republic

Feeble Joe Biden skipped Tuesday night’s NATO dinner and headed straight to his hotel room in Lithuania. The White House blamed Biden’s busy schedule and upcoming big speech for missing the big dinner. “Biden is not attending tonight’s dinner with NATO leaders,” the US official said, adding the president has “four full days of official business and is preparing for a big speech tomorrow, in addition to another day at the summit.” 80-year-old Joe Biden just cannot keep up with this week’s grueling schedule. Biden was limping alongside King Charles III as soon as he arrived at Windsor Castle on...

For decades, economists and analysts ignored the racial effects of how the government raises taxes. Now the introduction of race into the tax equation has blown things up a bit. This month marks the 45th anniversary of Proposition 13. Although the impact of Prop 13 on the state’s public finance landscape is far-reaching and mostly negative, the capping of property tax assessments is its signature element. It creates a property tax subsidy that increases the longer you own your home. As long as the value of your home grows faster than 2% a year, you come out ahead. As a...

A stagehand for country music superstar Randy Travis was shot dead over the weekend by his wife, who believed he was having an affair, police have revealed. Christine Roberts, 72, was arrested and charged with criminal homicide Sunday after she allegedly shot her husband, Thomas Roberts, 68, on the porch of their Nashville, Tenn., home, police said. When officers responded to the home, she told them she shot her husband “because he had cheated on her,” according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Thomas Roberts, who had worked for the “Diggin’ Up Bones” hitmaker for over two decades, died from...

Biden Tweet on great importance of his Grandkids! No matter how critical the Meeting, Joe will interrupt it to speak to his Grandkids, who already have hundreds of thousands in Trusts for them.

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal-Elect Fernández’s Week in the Media Leaves Questions UnansweredIn the eight days between his appointment to head the DDF and the announcement that he will be made a cardinal, he has had a lot to say — but his public comments have brought up as many questions as they’ve answered.On July 1, Pope Francis tapped his close collaborator, Archbishop Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernandez, to be the next prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). Just eight days later, the Pope announced at his July 9 Sunday Angelus that his longtime ghostwriter and theological adviser...

He had a puppet sidekick named Webster Webfoot, hosted the kids game show 'Funny Boners' and acted on 'Dragnet,' 'The Waltons' and 'The Rockford Files.'Jimmy Weldon, the cheery ventriloquist, kids TV host and actor who provided the voice for the endangered duck Yakky Doodle on Hanna-Barbera cartoons starting in the early 1960s, has died. He was 99. Weldon’s death on Thursday in Paso Robles, California, was reported by American Legion Post 43 in Hollywood, where he was chaplain emeritus. With the puppet Webster Webfoot, a duck he created in the 1940s, Weldon hosted TV shows for youngsters in New York,...

8 minute video explaining how the Left destroyed Chile & parallels to what is happening in the US. An excellent primer to send to friends & family who don't realize what is going on today.

Netflix quietly canned a video project that had been in the works for years addressing racist depictions in film and television, a new report claims. In early 2021, the streaming giant approved a series of explainer videos to "run alongside movies or television shows featuring racist or stereotypical caricatures." The videos would highlight "the use of blackface and 'yellowface' in Hollywood, as well as the depiction of native Americans in classic films and westerns," Semafor reported. The company's racially-focused video series began in the months after riots and protests erupted around the country following the death of George Floyd.

As Electric vehicle (EV) mandates are currently being considered in at least 17 states, there is a growing list of issues associated with them, like having a pacemaker fitted. Americans who use a pacemaker are particularly at risk when using charging stations. The Leading Manufacturer of Heart Pacemakers (Medtronic) has recommended that its users distance themselves at least 12 inches from electric vehicle charging stations, according to The Environmental Health Trust. Medtronic also warns its users to stay away from electric fences, electric pet containment fences, and transformer boxes. For Implantable Cardiac Devices Most household and hobby items are unlikely...

China is tamping down on meetings that provide false information and could harm citizens, state media said, as the authorities step up oversight on what they consider questionable activities in various areas. The Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and 10 other authorities issued a circular calling for a nationwide crackdown on meetings that "disrupt market order, affect social security and stability, and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of the people", Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday (Jul 8). China wants to curb activities like gatherings and forums that collect fees irregularly and schemes...

An increasing number of countries are repatriating gold reserves as protection against the sort of sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, according to an Invesco survey of central bank and sovereign wealth funds published on Monday.The financial market rout last year caused widespread losses for sovereign money managers who are "fundamentally" rethinking their strategies on the belief that higher inflation and geopolitical tensions are here to stay. Over 85% of the 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks that took part in the annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study believe that inflation will now be higher in...

The Student Experience Research Network sounds innocuous enough. The organization says it exists to "advance the research, relationships, and capacity necessary to build an education system in which every student experiences respect as a valued person and thinker." In reality, the group funds research with the goal of promoting DEI practices in education and partners with other left-wing organizations to promote "inclusive mathematics environments" and push universities to abandon standardized tests. Earlier this month, the Student Experience Research Network took a victory lap after the University of California system said it would toss out the SAT in its admissions process....

President Biden is taking flak for sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, and over the weekend he blurted out the truth that both Kyiv and the U.S. are running low on firepower. So why doesn’t the Commander in Chief unveil a new national effort to expand U.S. weapons production and stocks? “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” Mr. Biden told CNN. “This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it.” The U.S. has given Kyiv more than two million 155mm artillery rounds, and the Pentagon says Ukraine is burning through...

Damien Cook broke a Maryland state record when he reeled in a 21-pound northern snakehead. Photo courtesy of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources July 7 (UPI) -- A Maryland angler broke a state record when he reeled in a northern snakehead that weighed in at a whopping 21 pounds. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources said Damien Cook of Rhodesville was fishing from his kayak in a Dorchester County river when he hooked the invasive fish. "Honestly, I thought it was just your average 30-inch snakehead when I first hooked the fish," Cook told DNR officials. "It pulled hard...

A helicopter crash in Nepal, near Mount Everest, has left six people dead, according to Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority. File Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA-EFE July 11 (UPI) -- A helicopter crash in Nepal, near Mount Everest, has left six people dead. Five of the victims were Mexican citizens on a sightseeing tour, while the sixth was a Nepalese pilot. The passengers, who have been identified as Maria Jose Sifuentes, Fernando Sifuentes, Abric Gonzalez, Ismael Rincon and Olacio Luz Gonzalez, were all from the same family. The pilot was identified as Nepalese citizen Chet B. Gurung, according to the Civil Aviation...

The dangerous hate of Catholic homophobia | OpinionFor the sixth year, my parish, Our Lady of Grace in Hoboken, celebrated a Pride Mass on the last Sunday in June. We do it on the day Pride celebrations occur all over the world but for a different reason: Ours spiritually affirms the dignity of each person as a child of God.And for the sixth year, about a dozen people protested the Mass across the street from the church in front of the dog run in Church Square Park. For only one day a year, I wished the dogs drowned out the...

Bel Powley stars as Miep Gies in the Disney+ series 'A Small Light' (Video screenshot) How far will Hollywood "progressives" go to advance their agenda of celebrating all things LGBT? Evidently, as far as taking a real historical figure and making him homosexual – with zero evidence – as a tool to inject "queer" history into the storyline. Tony Phelan and Joan Rater are the husband-and-wife creators of the popular historical mini-series "A Small Light," about Miep Gies, a Dutch woman who famously helped hide Anne Frank's family and other Jews from Nazi occupiers carrying out Hitler's "Final Solution" in...

Walmart is closing 22 retail locations across the US this year, including four in Chicago, citing poor financial performance at each. In the latest move, Walmart confirmed Monday that it plans to close a store in Richmond, Virginia, on July 28. "We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Brook Road Neighborhood Market location," Walmart spokesperson Felicia McCranie said in an emailed statement to Insider. "We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities including our Brook Road Supercenter just two miles away and on walmart.com."...

Visitors to Disney theme parks this summer are encountering something they haven’t seen in a while: elbow room. Travel analysts and advisers say traffic to Disney’s U.S. parks, and some rival parks, has slowed this summer. Data from a travel company that tracks line-waiting time at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., shows that the Independence Day weekend was one of the slowest in nearly a decade. Disney executives have said they have expected weaker earnings from their U.S. parks this year. The Orlando-area resort is even offering hotel discounts around Christmas, typically a peak period. Travel advisers and industry...

Unsold electric cars continue to pile up on dealer lots amid the auto industry’s apparent misjudgment of buyers’ demands while attempting to compete with Tesla. Most notably, luxury brands are struggling with high inventories of EVs that nobody wants to purchase. With the increasing discrepancy between electric car supply and demand signals, there is a big looming public concern over buying an EV due to charging concerns and the hefty price tag. As Axios reported, senior manager of economic and industry insights at Cox Automotive, Jonathan Gregory, linked the situation to the 1989 film Field of Dreams, which coined the...