Free Republic

The judge who presided over a civil business fraud trial against Donald Trump and his company has issued his decision in the case. Judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president and the Trump Organization to pay over $364 million in damages, and bars Trump "from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in New York for a period of three years." The judgment is the second this year against Trump after he was hit last month with an $83.3 million verdict in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against him. The former...

Ep. 75 The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States. "What I’m describing is military rule," says Mike Benz. "It’s the inversion of democracy."Deep state heads will be exploding over this one.

As people with HIV live longer, end-stage diseases of the kidney, liver, heart and lung continue to rise. As a result, the need for organs available for transplantation has increased. However, donor organs are in chronic short supply nationwide for people with and without HIV. While people with HIV can and do continue to receive organs from HIV-negative donors, transplants from donors with HIV may reduce time on the transplant waiting list and associated costs for these recipients. Nearly a decade of research into organs transplanted from donors with HIV to recipients with HIV will inform an intended proposed rule...

A very long essay, but crucial to understanding where we are. One would think that by now all these anti-woke conservatives and moderate liberals would have learned at least some of the bitter lessons from the last decade about how political power and cultural change actually work, but I guess not. … They could have recognized by now that this is not a simple political issue with a political solution, but they have not…. No, the Revolution is far from over. [Here are] twenty reasons to get woke and despair. 1. One does not simply walk away from religious beliefs....

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Friday for taking what Schumer’s office called “a cynical field trip to the border” after both Republican senators voted last week to block a bipartisan border deal that Graham was involved in negotiating. Graham is coming under fire from colleagues for voting against Ukraine funding after he insisted on adding border security provisions to an emergency defense spending package and even though he and his staff had a hand in negotiating the border language. He was supposed to lead a bipartisan delegation with Sen....

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Speculation on what former President Donald Trump may do with NATO should he be reelected this November is running rampant as he appears poised to become the Republican nominee, and as President Joe Biden’s poll numbers hit record lows. A recent report from Bloomberg News cited anonymous sources who claimed Trump is considering a two-tiered NATO system where members would only come to the defense of members who met the goal of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense. However, Breitbart News was told Friday the report was inaccurate and based on speculation. The idea was first...

Many of us have been exasperated by the antics of Just Stop Oil protesters. Now, I believe that these are well-meaning and committed to their cause and I am sure that they think that they are trying to save the planet in the best way they can think of – gain publicity, get people talking and influence politicians. But what would happen if we literally just stopped oil tomorrow and did without the natural resources on which the world, its economies and populations depend? The answer: most likely six billion people would die within a year. I am going to...

For inhabitants of the country's most sought-after ZIP code, the unwelcome news came in December: In a move to pressure the city to zone for more affordable housing, a restrictive ruling by a Superior Court judge put a moratorium on Beverly Hills' right to approve any new home additions or project proposals by residents pending the approval of new homes for lower-income locals. In this ultra-exclusive community, where home remodeling is practically a sport, the notion that all renovations - from simple kitchen remodels to multimillion-dollar grotto installations - would require the ushering in of outsiders, or be delayed indefinitely,...

The U.S. Department of Education has been reviewing the accounts of borrowers who have been in repayment for decades to see if they are eligible for forgiveness. Marlon Fox, a chiropractor in North Charleston, South Carolina, is one person to benefit.In August, he learned that his more than $100,000 student debt balance had been canceled. He’d carried the debt for 35 years. Shortly after Fox heard that his student loans were forgiven, he received a payment from the government for $56,801. A $60,000 debt that only grew In the 1980s,Fox borrowed roughly $60,000 to attend the Palmer College of Chiropractic....

American soldiers could be next in line to combat the Russian military if the House does not approve a supplemental package that includes aid to Ukraine, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said Friday. “In the next front against Russia, it will be Americans on the front lines,” Coons told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Friday in an interview from the Munich Security Conference. “We are best off investing in the Ukrainians who are fighting bravely for their own freedom than allowing Putin the opportunity to spread further chaos and violence across Europe,” Coons said. The Senate approved a $95 billion foreign aid...

Ukrainian troops in Avdiivka struggled Friday with severe ammunition shortages as Russian forces tightened the noose around the strategic eastern city in an intense Kremlin push for a battlefield win. The timing is critical as Russia is looking for a morale boost ahead of the second anniversary on Feb. 24 of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the March presidential election in Russia. The four-month battle in Avdiivka appeared to be coming to a head as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday made another trip to Europe, hoping to press his country’s Western allies to keep providing military support.

President Joe Biden said Friday he was both "not surprised" and "outraged" by reports of the death of Alexei Navalny, the longtime Russian opposition politician and critic of Vladimir Putin. Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service announced Navalny died in prison. The service claimed Navalny, 47, lost consciousness after a walk but gave no official cause of death. "Russian authorities are going to tell their own story," Biden said in remarks delivered from the Roosevelt Room. "Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny's death."

KEY POINTS New York Attorney General Letitia James accused former President Donald Trump, his company and others of fraudulently inflating Trump’s assets to boost his net worth and get financial perks. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron had found Trump and his co-defendants liable for fraud before the case went to trial. Trump is the clear front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, setting up a likely rematch with President Joe Biden. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A judge could deliver a hammer blow to Donald Trump and his company when he issues a decision in the New York civil trial accusing the former president...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress issued a dire warning to the American people Friday, sternly reminding voters that if they do not keep sending billions of tax dollars to Ukraine, the war might end. "This is America. We can't let this happen," said Senator Chuck Schumer in a press conference. "Our donors at Lockheed Martin, General Dynamic, Teledyne, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Burisma are running out of patience. If we don't inject their weapon supply chains with fresh cash immediately, Ukraine and Russia might be forced to broker a peace deal." "I shudder at the thought." Foreign policy experts concurred...

A 90-year-old California woman has been fired from her volunteer role at the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society after 60 years because she “did not understand pronouns.” Fran Itkoff, a longtime advocate for those with MS, lost her husband to the degenerative disease 20 years ago before taking his place as the head of the Long Beach Lakewood MS support group in addition to volunteering for the national organization. During her several decades of selfless work, she has won multiple awards from the nonprofit group. A bombshell interview with Chaya Raichik from Libs of TikTok exposed the complete miscarriage of...

16 February 2024 Friday after Ash Wednesday Saint Juliana Parish, Chicago Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet. Year: B(II).First readingIsaiah 58:1-9 ©The sort of fast that pleases meThus says the Lord:Shout for all you are worth, raise your voice like a trumpet.Proclaim their faults to my people, their sins to the House of Jacob.They seek me day after day, they long to know my ways,like a nation that wants to act with integrity and not ignore the law of its God.They ask me for laws that are just, they long for God to draw near:‘Why should we fast if you...

The graph shows the Average Surface Temperature Anomaly for the contiguous United States since 2005. The data comes from the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) which is a properly sited (away from human influences and infrastructure) and state-of-the-art weather network consisting of 114 stations in the USA...The US Climate Reference Network record from 2005 shows no obvious warming during this period. [Chart in Comment #1]

An angry scream. A pained moan. An astonished “Oh my gosh.” Those were the first three reactions that could be heard after two British climate activists threw tomato soup on one of Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings at the National Gallery in London in a video that went ultra-viral earlier this month. The emotional register of those reactions — rage, sadness, shock — were a preview of what was to come. They foreshadowed the most common responses countless people on social media had to the action, during which one activist queried: “What is worth more? Art or life?”

leekern @leekern13: Some Muslim men in Pakistan eating an Israeli flag. This captures the heart of what Israel is dealing with. Fu_cking morons. Emotionally immature racists. Idiots. Irrational men. People you could have no reasonable conversation with. The thickest on earth.