Free Republic

Not too long ago, Wells Fargo got its head handed to it by regulators, drawing a $3 billion fine for opening fake accounts in real customers' names, to beef up their bonuses as well as fool shareholders into thinking the business was growing, potentially driving up the stock price. That's no partisan take -- that's just plain dishonesty. The bank had to pay a $3 billion fine, at least one executive faced prison and a hefty personal fine of $17 million, and if anything, it was too little. A small fry bank that did this would rightly be shut down...

In the Post, George Will predicts that neither Donald Trump nor Ron DeSantis will be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024. Inter alia, Will bases this on what he considers to be voters’ inevitable “rebellion against inevitability”: Voters, however, become contrary when told that the game’s outcome is known in the top of the first inning. Hence what G.K. Chesterton called the game of “Cheat the Prophet”: People listen politely to explanations of what is inevitable, then make something else happen. As a rule, there’s a lot to this. Americans did not like being told in 2007 that the next...

The day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) won reelection by a shocking 19-point margin, the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post screamed a one-word front page headline: “DeFuture.”The celebratory photo showed a Kennedy-esque, central-casting-worthy family. Casey DeSantis, holding hands with her two small children, looked like a future first lady in her stunning gold designer gown on her way to the inaugural ball. The victorious governor held their third child with one arm, waving to the crowd with the other.Looking back at that eight-month-old New York Post front page, not only have the powerful Murdochs reportedly soured on DeSantis, but...

How's this for a fake controversy generated by wokester identity-politics fanatics? A top country music star named Luke Combs pulled in a number one hit by singing the 1988 song of a black female folk singer named Tracy Chapman, and instead of celebrate that happy revival,, the radical left is out complaining, True to form, the Washington Post has created a fake controversy by quoting a malcontent:To quite a few people, this is cause for yet another celebration in Combs’s whirlwind journey as the genre’s reigning megastar with 16 consecutive No. 1 hits. But it has also prompted a wave...

Sandra Lavigne is a military veteran, teacher and Houston-area resident who long admired her Democrat congresswoman, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. But this week Lavigne's role as mother of FBI whistleblower Marcus Allen left her disheartened when her favored lawmaker refused to help her son in his dispute with the bureau and instead lobbed false allegations against him. "I was devastated, and I was sad," Lavigne told Just the News in an exclusive interview aired Thursday on the John Solomon Reports podcast. Marcus Allen, a decorated Marine and former FBI employee of the year in Charlotte, N.C,, has found himself in...

MOUNT WASHINGTON, Ky. — Authorities discovered a grisly scene after executing a federal search warrant on a Mount Washington man's home earlier this week. On July 11, the FBI searched James William Nott's home in connection to stolen human remains being sold and shipped through online marketplaces. When police arrived at the apartment, an FBI agent asked Nott if anyone else was in the home with him. "Only my dead friends," he responded. Inside, police found dozens of human remains including 40 human skulls, spinal cords, femurs and hip bones. An agent later wrote that the skulls were "decorated around...

Tens of thousands of fraudsters splurged on Lamborghinis, vacation homes, private jet flights and Cartier jewelry by fleecing the PPP loan system in a $200 billion heist — and did it because the COVID loan scheme was so easy to milk. Approximately $1.2 trillion was rushed through Congress in 2020 and 2021 in COVID bailout cash for businesses and spent on the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDLP) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) schemes. But a new report from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General reveals an astonishing 17% vanished to fraud — an estimated total of...

In a public safety advisory issued on Thursday, the Oakland Police Department recommend residents to reinforce their doors and install security cameras amid a spate of home invasion robberies in the East Bay city. exp-player-logo Watch More Fascinating facts about San Francisco cable cars Thieves are ransacking homes, even when residents are present, and the department reported an increase in these break-ins across several neighborhoods, including Laurel, North Hills, Joaquin Miller and the Greater San Antonio area. "In recent cases, armed individuals forcibly entered the residences by kicking in doors, threatening the victims, and taking the victim’s personal belongings before...

In recent years, Palestinian and other Arab propagandists have claimed that before the Zionists appeared, supposedly intent on taking over by force land “belonging to the Arabs,” the local Arabs in “Palestine” (a toponym not used by the Arabs until the late 20th century, for until 1948 they thought of the area as part of “southern Syria”) had gotten along quite well with the Jews who had been living in the area long before the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers from Europe.In this version of history, it was only when Jews, having become Zionists, suddenly became land-grabbers, “stealing Arab...

The suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders, a case that captured national attention and confounded investigators on Long Island for more than a decade, was identified Friday as Rex Heuermann, sources said. Heuermann was taken into custody and expected to be arraigned later, four senior law enforcement officials briefed on the case told NBC News. The Suffolk County police and the Suffolk County district attorney are leading the investigation. The suspect is from Massapequa, which is in neighboring Nassau County.

I use the phrase “Judeo-Christian.” When I use it in a published piece, at least one disgruntled reader will shoot me a grumble of protest. “Judeo-Christian” is a controversial phrase. Since it raises hackles, why do I use it?First, let’s look at the controversy. “Judeo-Christian” is so controversial that a 368-page scholarly book has been written about the history and usage of the phrase. Chicago University Press went so far as to call it “dangerous” and a “linguistic battlefield.” I guess that makes those of us who use the phrase warriors. Professor Mark Silk suggests that the phrase is “neo-fascist.”...

Politics is sometimes little more than marketing. As evidence, behold the sudden use of the term "Bidenomics" by Democrats to describe administration policies of the past few years. Indeed, what's being branded as "new" is nothing but the same old program of big spending, big regulations, and big cronyism. The only difference is that it's on a much bigger scale. The administration will need all the marketing it can get to sell these ideas, especially to a public that's been giving it approval ratings in the thirties. But no marketing effort should distract us from the economic realities of the...

Three TSA officers at Miami International Airport were arrested last week for allegedly stealing from airline passengers, including swiping hundreds of dollars in cash from a man's wallet. Josue Gonzalez, 20; Elizabeth Fuster, 22; and Labarrius Williams, 33, were charged with organized scheme to defraud, according to Miami-Dade county jail records. They were booked into Turner Guilford Knight Detention Center. The arrest affidavits state that Miami International Airport authorities began investigating several reports of theft at Security Checkpoint E, where the officers were stationed.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday announced the terms for doling out $20 billion through “climate banks” authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, part of the massive green spending authorized by the law meant specifically to boost poorer towns and people harmed by pollution. The EPA said it was setting up two programs, one with $14 billion in funding and the other with $6 billion, that would in turn each set up a handful of institutions that would partner with private-sector entities to finance green projects, which could include heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations, building upgrades, and other similar...

Dylan Mulvaney is back stateside for a flashy film festival event in California while she traveled to Peru where she claimed she didn’t feel safe in the US. The transgender influencer, 26, appeared in good spirits as she donned a daring dress at the celebrated LGBTQ+ festival Outfest at downtown Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theatre Thursday. The model opted for a see-through dress for the star-studded premiere, pairing the look with bold eyeliner and a pair of black heels. She enjoyed several photo ops on the pink carpet, before posing for snaps with TikTok star Chris Olsen. Mulvaney attended the screening...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Appreciating and Applying God's Word ~ The Best of RICK WIENECKE “I am originally from Canada. I traveled to Israel in 1977 with the intention of working on a Kibbutz for six months. I am now an Israeli citizen, married with two sons, and have been living in Israel for over 33 years. “My draw to Israel was a personal search for God. I was fascinated with the birth of Israel as a nation only three years after the devastation of the Jewish people in the Holocaust. I perceived that if there...

The seven dwarves have been replaced by 'magical creatures' for Disney's live-action remake of Snow White...who appear to be a mix of genders, ethnicities and heights.

A 32-year-old Oregon man has been hailed as a “protector” after he was fatally stabbed outside a bar when he stood up for an LGBTQ+ friend who was being harassed by another patron. Colin Smith, a beloved server at Portland eatery Ox, was enjoying a night out with friends at The High Dive bar in the city’s Buckman neighborhood on July 2 when a patron began harassing them, Oregon Live reported. The man allegedly made homophobic comments, inappropriately touched two members of the group, and targeted an LGBTQ+ friend, Smith’s former girlfriend, Paulina Solis, 34, told the news outlet. Smith...

What screams may come! Actually, the aftermath of excessive monetary policies under Bernanke, Yellen and Powell are coming home to bit the big banks. Interest expenses at big US banks are rising much more quickly than interest income. Across the six largest US banks, interest expenses are set to climb to roughly $78.7 billion from $15.5 billion in the same period last year. There is still $8.3 Trillion in monetary stimulus sloshing around the monetary system. The Fed played a game. And is still playing!!

Covid injections caused or contributed to 74 percent of deaths after inoculation. That’s according to a Lancet review of autopsy data of more than 300 post-injection deaths. But good luck finding the paper — The Lancet scrubbed it within 24 hours. Other stories in today’s show include: An unclassified report developed from the Office of Naval Intelligence reveals the frighteningly deteriorated status of U.S. Navy shipbuilding capability; U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (Ala.) pledge to block officer nominations on the Senate floor is going into its fifth month; the saga of fugitive whistleblower Gal Luft took another turn yesterday; and congressional...