Free Republic

Sitting in a ‘freezing’ courtroom hasn’t kept Donald Trump from securing some red hot fundraising numbers. In fact, stunning new campaign finance data reveals the criminal defendant has been out-raising President Joe Biden even while cooling his heels inside a Manhattan courtroom. Trump and the Republican Party brought in $76 million in April. That’s about 50 per cent more than the $51 million Biden and the Democratic National Committee brought in last month.

Trump's decision not to take the witness stand was not a surprise, as testifying carries serious risks for any criminal defendant, particularly one with a tendency to speak off the cuff and undercut his prior statements, as he has shown in testimony in other civil matters...Trump had previously said he was "absolutely" willing to testify in the case...

The Biden administration ordered a ban on 2024 election betting markets, which often show former President Donald Trump winning in November and President Joe Biden remaining his party’s nominee. Betting markets often provide different insights than election polling that established media outlets perform and are often useful to academics and journalists. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a rule on May 10 to permanently ban betting on election commercial prediction markets in the United States, the New York Times’ Jeff Sommer recently reported, even as sports gambling became largely deregulated, soaring in popularity: Rostin Behnam, the chairman of the C.F.T.C.,...

VIDEO AT LINK................... May 20 (UPI) -- A 12-foot alligator was relocated from Florida's MacDill Air Force Base after twice being found in restricted areas. The 12-foot, 4-inch gator was first spotted at the Tampa base in April, when it found its way to the runway and parked itself by the landing gear of a plane. The reptile was ejected, but put in a second appearance last week outside the Med Group facility. Base officials made arrangements for the alligator to be permanently relocated to Gatorama and Crocodile Adventures in Palmdale, a facility located about 155 miles away. Gatorama dubbed...

The defense rested in Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Tuesday, without the former president himself testifying. Trump had previously railed about being silenced and falsely claimed he was not allowed to testify, but ultimately elected of his own volition not to take the stand in his own defense. Trump’s decision came without fanfare. The move was not surprising – defendants in criminal cases rarely testify, because they would be subject to cross-examination, during which they could easily say something that harms their defense – but followed several instances of Trump claiming he was not allowed to do so. The judge,...

In the first year of the Biden administration, inflation hit a 40-year high and has continued to climb steadily since then. However, he blames the problem on “evil corporations,” not his own misguided economic policies. “Too many corporations raise prices to pad their profits, charging more and more for less and less,” said President Biden in his most recent State of the Union Address. His administration has driven the deficit, expanded the debt to historic levels, printed money, increased the money supply, and given away trillions of dollars to people who do not work and to foreign countries, but he...

Germany’s Parliament, known as the Bundestag, received enough votes last week to remove a section of the country’s Criminal Code to reduce the minimum penalties for “dissemination, acquisition and possession of child pornographic content.”According to the Bundestag, the bill specifies that “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”In 2021, the possession of child sexual...

NATIONAL STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM DAY | May 21 Each year on May 21st, we combine two favorites for a celebration on National Strawberries and Cream Day. Fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream is a must when strawberries are in season. They are the perfect, refreshing, light snack on a beautifully warm day! #StrawberriesAndCreamDay With these bright red berries in season, it should be no surprise that it's also National Strawberry Month. Strawberries are a very healthy snack as they are low-fat, low in calories, and an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber, folic acid, and potassium. Strawberries grow all over...

Klaus Schwab will reportedly step down as the executive chairman of the globalist World Economic Forum (WEF). According to Semafor, which cites an internal email to WEF staff, Schwab intends to step down from his current position as head of the powerful globalist organization before its next annual meeting in 2025 and transition to a role as non-executive chairman. While Schwab has not announced his successor, Semafor names Norwegian politician and current president of the WEF, Børge Brende, as a likely candidate. Schwab, who turned 86 in March, has been synonymous with the World Economic Forum, acting as chairman since...

Everyone expected Russia to launch a new offensive in Ukraine on May 9. That’s because May 9 is Victory Day in Russia – the day the country celebrates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. It’s a symbolic day for a war of choice that’s less about territory or resources than it is about Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s conception of himself as a new Russian emperor lording over a thriving Russian empire. But Putin’s new Russian empire is a farce, albeit a nightmarishly bloody one. And his Victory Day offensive is a farce, too. Less than...

Our Federal Government Needs an InterventionAllison Pearson has an important article in the Telegraph about the British National Health System (NHS). People in Britian are dying of treatable conditions because the NHS will not provide quality care in a timely fashion. As one doctor complained: “The NHS is run by managers for the benefit of managers.” It has shifted from doctors serving patients to the bureaucracy serving itself -- internally, rather than externally, focused. The NHS is a chilling illustration of where our federal government is headed.All complex systems require feedback and response. The driver of a car needs a...

Welcome to the party, Koleken inakayali, we'll clap for you. La Colonia Formation continues to deliver the new dinosaur goods. Image credit: © Gabriel Díaz Yantén Behold, the tiny arms of a new species of abelisaurid dinosaur, Koleken inakayali. Retrieved from La Colonia Formation in Patagonia, it dates back 70 million years and has an impressively miniature set of arms. Think T. rex’s were mini? You ain’t seen nothing yet. The new tiny-armed species looks similar to the iconic “meat bull” Carnotaurus, made famous from Jurassic World and that love scene in Prehistoric Planet. Koleken is different, however, both in...

“Corporate price gouging” is the Biden administration’s latest narrative to displace the responsibility of soaring costs. President Joe Biden, who falsely claimed twice in two weeks that inflation was at nine percent when he assumed office, is transitioning to another tack, albeit a strategy he has used before. “President Biden’s top economic priorities are fighting inflation and lowering costs for the American people,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates claimed. “Standing up to corporate price gouging is at the core of that fight.”

There are only three types of propaganda to which you are exposed every day: white, gray and black propaganda. White propaganda does not involve distortion of facts for achieving political ends. Gray propaganda involves such distortion, but only to a minor degree. Black propaganda allows for every possible distortion of reality to achieve propaganda objectives. The more shameless the propaganda, the more powerful its effect on the audience. Black propaganda is the most powerful because it is not constrained by the need to stick to the facts. I studied at the Journalism Faculty of the Moscow State University, we had...

Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie warned that if there were to be a Palestinian state in the Middle East, it would mirror what the Taliban is doing in Afghanistan, would be ruled by Hamas terrorists, and be a satellite state for Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. "I have been in favor of a separate Palestinian state most of my life," the award-winning Indian-British novelist said Sunday, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing an interview he gave with the German rbb24 TV channel. "But if there were a Palestinian state now, it would be run by Hamas, and we would...

Archer Aviation, one of the companies leading the global charge towards the certification and introduction of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Abu-Dhabi-based Etihad Training. The agreement, announced at the Future Aviation Forum being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between May 20 and 22, 2024, lays the groundwork for a commercial partnership that aims to recruit and train prospective pilots for Archer’s Midnight aircraft that will be based in Abu Dhabi and operate across the UAE. Archer’s Midnight aircraft is a piloted, four-passenger aircraft designed to perform rapid...

Russia on Tuesday announced the start of tactical nuclear weapons drills close to Ukraine, in what it said was a response to Western "threats". Throughout its two-year offensive on Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly talked-up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and its readiness to deploy them if it senses an existential threat. The West has accused President Vladimir Putin of irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling. Russia's defence ministry said Tuesday the drills were taking place in its Southern Military District, which borders and includes parts of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. It did not specify exactly where.

Ocean water is pushing miles beneath Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier,” making it more vulnerable to melting than previously thought, according to new research which used radar data from space to perform an X-ray of the crucial glacier. As the salty, relatively warm ocean water meets the ice, it’s causing “vigorous melting” underneath the glacier and could mean global sea level rise projections are being underestimated, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica — nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier” because its collapse could cause catastrophic sea level rise —...

It's no secret that Judge Juan Merchan is a partisan judge who has exhibited prejudicial behavior against Donald Trump in his Manhattan trial, but famed lawyer and law professor Alan Dershowitz had to see for himself. He attended the Trump trial on Monday and was appalled at what he saw.Dershowitz appeared on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News Monday evening, during which he destroyed Merchan for his conduct during the testimony of Michael Cohen's former lawyer, Bob Costello. It got extremely tense at times, and Merchan even cleared the courtroom before scolding Costello over his alleged violation of decorum. “I’d...

Buckets of blood dripped from Ebrahim Raisi, the 8th president of Iran, for his roles on the “Death Committee” and other atrocities under his direction. He wore a black turban to claim that he descended from the Prophet Muhammad. The Shiite president did not survive the helicopter crash of May 19, 2024. Who will mourn the death of an evil man who presided over the death and torture of so many? Dissidents were tortured, subjected to cruel inhuman treatment, and killed. A political purge against political dissidents lasted five months during 1988. Ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini, the “Death Committee” was...