Free Republic

It was Jan. 19, 1989. Ronald Reagan was in his final full day as president of the United States and was making remarks at a Presidential Medal of Freedom presentation. As he finished celebrating the achievements of the honorees, he turned to another subject that was on his mind: “Since this is the last speech I will give as president, I think it’s fitting to leave one final thought, an observation about a country which I love.” What followed is remembered as Reagan’s most majestic description of America as a welcoming harbor for immigrants. Here is just some of what...

A Minnesota man who spent years building a record-setting collection of items related to the rock group KISS is selling it off due to financial problems. Vern Simon conducted a count of the items in his collection last year and found that he had nearly 3,800 KISS-related dolls, comic books, toys, and other items. After he submitted the count to the Guinness Book of World Records, he was certified as having the largest known collection of KISS memorabilia. Simon says he's sad to have to let his collection go, but said it was necessary to find a way to take...

ODOT awarded Portland $2 million in 2022 to clean up graffiti, and then another $1 million a year later, and now the fund is empty. As the recent Portland photo shows, you cannot tell that any extra $3 million has been spent. Now Governor Kotek has pledged an additional $10 million. Portland chose to de-fund police and stop prosecuting people for minor crimes like graffiti, property damage and vandalism. They said it was a victimless crime. The liberal mindset gave way to using tax dollars to solve the runaway graffiti problem, because liberals view most problems can be solved by...

A majority of Americans say the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was an “attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released this week. In the poll, 55 percent of respondents said the Capitol riot was an “attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” but 43 percent said “too much is being made” of the riot and that it is “time to move on. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said former President Trump bears “a great deal” of responsibility for the Capitol riot, and 16 percent said he bears a “good amount”...

An object uncovered by archaeologists in Norfolk, England, is “completely unlike” anything else ever discovered, experts said Monday. The tiny 19.4 mm (o.7 inch) object is a gilded silver relic, adorned with intricate designs appearing to show an animal looking over its shoulder, according to The Telegraph. The piece is believed to be at least 1,200 years old and archaeologists reportedly can’t determine the purpose of the mysterious object. Detectorists found the piece in a crumpled condition, but it appears to be a round object with shallow sides, making it somewhat dish-shaped. “It was made by someone with a real...

Ukraine entered 2023 filled with hope. Its forces had just secured enormous battlefield and strategic victories, first at Kherson and then Kharkiv, recapturing much lost territory from the Russian invaders, and Western capitals seemed increasingly confident that victory could be at hand.By the end of January, European and American leaders were no longer talking about whether to send Western main battle tanks, but how many and when. Britain led the charge, confirming that the formidable Challenger II would be sent to Ukraine, and putting intense diplomatic pressure on Washington and Berlin to follow London’s lead. Both duly buckled. With tanks...

A new poll revealed that around one-third of American voters said they believe President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020. The Washington Post/University of Maryland (Post-UMD) poll surveyed views surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults say they believe Biden was legitimately elected, down from 69 percent overall in the 2021 poll. However, the most significant drop was from those who said the 2020 election results were legitimate came from Republicans, 31 percent in 2023. The number is down from 39 percent two years earlier. But 91 percent of Democrats...

At the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual conclave of globalist elites in Davos, Switzerland, later this month, organisers say one word is going to be central to the event: trust.The WEF has released a partial outline of just what is on the agenda at its mostly closed-door 54th annual meeting.

How do you spell contraction? M-O-N-E-Y! Take a look at this chart of real GDP YoY / Bank Credit YoY on the left axis and M2 Money growth on the right axis. I call this the velocity of bank credit. And it is sucking wind! Crashing to -13 in Q3. Then we have US manufacturing PMI saw only two months in 2023 that were not in contraction and ended on a decidedly poor note with the final December print dropping to 47.9 (from 48.2 flash and 49.4 prior). Source: Bloomberg Across the board it was ugly with: Renewed contraction in...

While speaking to New York ABC affiliate WABC on Monday, Edison, New Jersey Mayor Sam Joshi (D) stated that he turned a bus full of migrants sent to the city back because local police “did not know if any of those 40 individuals were carrying weapons, they couldn’t be identified.” And this is “a major security risk. It’s a health risk. And we’re just not going to tolerate that.” Joshi, who plans to send migrants back to the border, also stated that he doesn’t want to pawn problems off on other mayors. WABC New Jersey Reporter Toni Yates stated, “The...

A London-based ‘sperm donor‘ who has fathered at least 180 children through both “artificial insemination” and “natural insemination” is complaining that his serial sperm ‘donations’ have made it difficult to have a relationship. The man, who calls himself “Joe Donor,” says he is the “angel of the north” because he’s fathered nearly 200 children with women who don’t know his real name or identity. He ‘donates’ to the women in multiple ways; in addition to mailing sperm to women for artificial insemination, he also engages in “natural intercourse,” meaning he has sex with the women, and “partial intercourse,” meaning sex...

Washington, DC, recorded in 2023 the highest annual number of homicides the city has witnessed since 1997 despite stringent gun control. According to the Washington Post, 274 people were killed in the city in 2023. D.C. saw a murder rate of 40 per 100,000 residents, making it “deadlier than 55 of the country’s 60 most populous cities, behind only New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis.” Washington, DC, New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Memphis are all Democrat-run cities.

Hundreds of loans on office buildings are about to come due at a very bad time.. Loans were taken out in time of low interest rates and are now hard to refinance.. Too many of the loans defaulting could trigger banking crisis and hurt economy ... About $117 billion worth is expected to be due this year and needs to be repaid or refinanced, ... A big chunk of it is at risk of defaulting and costing banks and developers huge sums, sending some into insolvency. Owners of office space around the country took out their loans when interest rates...

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Jack Poso 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec Check out page 39 of the Epstein flight logs Does that say Chuck Schumer? 8:47 AM · Jan 2, 2024

As an Israeli American living outside Jerusalem; as someone who served for 20 years in the Israel Defense Forces, including five years in the Gaza Strip; and as a father whose son is presently serving, I have “skin” in the game of the latest Israel-Hamas war. And I believe that Israel’s campaign in Gaza must be ended now. The reason this war began is clear. Hamas is responsible for committing Holocaust-like crimes on Oct. 7. However, the unimaginable horrors for which Hamas must be held responsible do not minimize the culpability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for...

Steve Bannon, ex-aide to former President Trump, said Monday that he anticipates a big fight over whether GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley should be the former president’s pick for vice president in the general election. Bannon advised strongly against Trump, who remains the GOP front-runner in the race, choosing the former South Carolina governor to be his running mate. “One of the fights we’re going to have, a big fight, it will take place in the spring, will be — they’re going to try to force Nikki on the ticket,” Bannon said on an episode of the “Human Events Daily...

NATIONAL CREAM PUFF DAY | January 2 National Cream Puff Day on January 2 is for dessert and pastry lovers alike to celebrate this delicious French creation all day long. #NationalCreamPuffDay Originating in France, cream puffs are also known as profiterole and choux a la creme. Cream puffs are a French dessert pastry filled with whipped cream, pastry cream, ice cream or custard. They may be served plain or can be decorated with chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, or dusted with powdered sugar. Borrowed from the French, the word “profiterole” has existed in English since 1604. The “cream puff” has been...

It was a year of reckoning, a year in which humanity finally began to understand that it faces an existential threat, a threat unlike any we have ever faced before, a threat that will wreak havoc on our fragile planet if we fail to stop it—and it may already be too late. We are referring, of course, to pickleball. Nobody knows where it started. Some scientists believe it escaped from a laboratory in China. But whatever its origin, it has been spreading like rancid mayonnaise ever since, to the point where pickleball courts now cover 43 percent of the continental...

Tuesday 2 January 2024 Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops, Doctors on 2 January St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic Church, Irving, Texas Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst reading1 John 2:22-28 ©The anointing he gave you teaches you everythingThe man who denies that Jesus is the Christ –he is the liar,he is Antichrist;and he is denying the Father as well as the Son,because no one who has the Father can deny the Son,and to acknowledge the Son is to have the Father as...