Free Republic

This woman is venturing out of her house for the first time in 3 years so she can go see Barbie, right in middle of a deadly pandemic! So brave

Since China opened to foreign investment in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping, global firms have ploughed in hundreds of billions of dollars to buy and build factories for market access and cheap labour, bolstering the Chinese currency. A gentle downtrend in foreign direct investment gave way to a steep drop last quarter and inflows to China slammed to their lowest since records began 25 years ago, raising the prospect that the long-term trend is turning.

🐊Rob DeSantis is implodingIs it Rob? Or the people around him?🤔 pic.twitter.com/99Yyq1poJC— miguelifornia (@miguelifornia) August 9, 2023

A decision by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week to delay a 10-townhome project in Nob Hill, in part from concerns over how shadows would affect a neighboring park, raised fresh doubts among housing advocates and political leaders that the city can break old habits and meet an ambitious, state-mandated goal to build housing. The move “raises serious doubts about the viability of SF’s housing element,” state Sen. Scott Wiener wrote on Twitter, referring to the state’s requirement that San Francisco build 82,000 new units during the next eight years. Mayor London Breed said Thursday that the supervisors...

The discovery last month of a Chinese COVID biolab in California shocked the nation, but likely came as no surprise to the state’s Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom.Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden share a moment. / PHOTO: APHe helped fund it.The now-notorious secret facility, which contained a massive stockpile of “infectious agents,” including coronavirus, and nearly a thousand dead lab mice and vials of unidentified biological fluids, also likely came as no surprise to the Biden administration.The FDA last year issued a recall warning for nearly 54,000 COVID rapid tests manufactured by the company that owned the lab.Fresno County...

This is what it’s like living in blue cities. And if you voted for this, you get what you vote for.

Mike Pence has met the requirements for the first Republican presidential debate. He finally reached the donor threshold. His campaign confirmed the news late Monday. Pence capitalized on Trump’s indictment and allegations that Trump tried to pressure Pence to reject the 2020 election results. There must have been a level of humiliation felt by Pence and his campaign as the former vice president failed to get the necessary donor level to qualify for the debate. His campaigned reached the polling requirement but had difficulty getting 40,000 unique donations. Pence is a former congressman, governor, and vice president and he only...

President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell report on his Truth Social platform that the sham committee overseeing the investigation of the January 6th Capitol riot has destroyed their documents and records illegally. On Tuesday, Trump wrote: President Trump: So now that I have full Subpoena Power because of the Freedom of Speech Sham Indictment by Crooked Joe Biden, Deranged Jack Smith, and the DOJ, it has just been reported that the Unselect January 6th Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs has illegally destroyed their Records and Documents. This is unthinkable, and the Fake Political Indictment against me must be immediately...

@LancsPolice How it started 🤑 How it's going 🤔 @LancsPolice Not Samuel Walmsley’s brightest idea. 💡 He’s one of fourteen men jailed for nearly 50 years for his role in crime conspiracies in Great Harwood. Our investigation unravelled the criminal activity of Sam and his friends - Kevin Docherty, Noah Mulligan & Jordan Whittam. We recovered videos from Walmsley’s phone, implicating the gang as being involved in burglary, vehicle theft and the supply of cocaine and cannabis. It wasn’t too difficult, mind you.🙄 They filmed cash and bank cards stolen during a burglary in Clitheroe. As well as showing off...

The film Oppenheimer has made a lot of noise in the run-up to the anniversaries this month of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — and not just from Christopher Nolan’s bombastic soundtrack. As happens every year, these anniversaries prompt debate over the the decision to use atomic weapons, and whether they were necessary to end the war with Imperial Japan.The film itself seems timed to influence those debates. As Axios reported over the weekend, it has at least stirred controversy in Japan, although perhaps not exactly as its producers intended:“Oppenheimer” has generated backlash in Japan, for what critics argue...

Great stuff! @miguelifornia 🤣 https://t.co/gb8I9hCnNl— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) August 9, 2023🐊Rob DeSantis is a FAILURE......🐊Especially in New Hampshire pic.twitter.com/ScIgzWrwte— miguelifornia (@miguelifornia) July 3, 2023

Gavin Newsom. YECH.I swear. This unctuous, gleamy toothed, malevolent creature just gives me the willies. He reminds me so much of that anti-Christ-like cult leader in “The Stand,” Randall Flagg. All I see is evil personified every time he hits my monitor.How does California re-elect someone like that? Do they all have Stockholm Syndrome?Are they all brainwashed?Or is it a combination of indoctrination and abuse that allows them to countenance such an overlord and his minions.How do they live like this?Amid a surge in crime in Oakland, California, police have advised residents to use air horns to alert neighbors to...

I have traveled, stayed, and worked in Japan quite a bit, and think I understand that land and its people about as well as a gaijin can. It’s a beautiful country, with (mostly) friendly people, wonderful food, a great culture based on respect and consideration, and even some pretty good beers and whiskeys. I wouldn’t want to live there permanently; I’m too indelibly a red state – and RedState – American for that. But I’m very fond of the Land of the Rising Sun, and so keep abreast of events that affect Japan. To that end, it was interesting to...

Remember the heartbreaking stories, as shameless Joe Biden inexplicably withdrew all remaining U.S. forces from Afghanistan in the worst and most embarrassing United States military departure from a foreign country since the fall of Saigon in 1975? Of course, you do.The last US military planes left Afghanistan on August 30, 2021. Following that flight, Taliban soldiers entered the airport and declared victory.As my colleague Streiff reported on September 3, 2021, “By any conceivable measure, the US evacuation was a disgrace.” Streiff added:We know that thousands of Afghans holding special immigration visas (SIV) were left behind. We know hundreds, if not...

Remember when the media was awash with reports about Secret Service agents finding white powder in the White House? The saga kicked off shortly before Independence Day, and every member of the chattering class chimed in with speculation as to who the coke-nosed culprit could be.The situation calmed down after the Secret Service, with a wink and nudge, announced that it could not identify the person who brought the drugs to the president’s residence. But now, it appears there is another development, and the game, as they say, is afoot once again.Reporter Susan Katz Keating of Soldier of Fortune Magazine...

@DougAMacgregor The only people willing to go public and make ridiculous statements that Putin has lost the war are President Biden and perhaps his NSA. This is nonsense, he absolutely hasn't and everyone knows that.

Michael Senger wrote a piece this weekend arguing that the response to COVID-19 was devised by the intelligence community to perform what amounted to a coup. You can see his point. The IC has been deeply involved in both the censorship regime and the spread of sketchy information that was pushed out. It helped monitor the flow of information, the implementation of draconian policies that limited people’s liberties, and infiltrated social media companies and search engines to manipulate public perception and acceptance of hitherto unheard-of policies that fundamentally altered Western Culture. Senger’s thesis hinges on the notion that the Western...

A bag of cocaine found in the West Wing last month reportedly may have belonged to someone in the “Biden family orbit” — and the president allegedly knows who it is. Soldier of Fortune publisher Susan Katz Keating made the shocking claim, citing three security sources, in a report published Sunday — even texting a number linked to President Biden in a bid to sniff out the culprit. The Post has not been able to independently confirm the Soldier of Fortune report and the Secret Service has vehemently denied it. According to Keating, while the Secret Service publicly announced July...

On this date in 1944, Nazi Germany’s juridical vengeance against Hitler’s near-assassins commenced. Barely two weeks after Col. Stauffenberg‘s bomb had barely missed slaying the Fuhrer, eight of his principal co-conspirators stood show trials at the Volksgerichtshof (People’s Court) before hectoring prig Roland Freisler. The outcome, of course, was foreordained. Apparently orders had come down from on high to make the deaths as degrading as possible; this batch, convicted August 7-8, was hanged naked this day at Berlin’s Plotzensee Prison on thin cord (piano wire, say some sources, although it’s not clear to me whether this is literally true) suspended...

U.S. consumer credit card debt has reached a record-high $1.03 trillion, according to the New York Federal Reserve’s latest quarterly household debt report released Tuesday. In the second quarter of 2023 alone, credit card balances grew by more than 4 percent, a possible sign that consumers are relying on their cards more than ever to get through a period of relatively high inflation. But even though credit cards can be helpful tools for building financial security, carrying a balance month to month can quickly become overwhelming and lead to expensive debt and a tarnished credit score. Here are three methods...