Free Republic

Even before President Joe Biden had announced his exit from the 2024 election, thousands of voters flocked to the website PredictIt last month, hoping to place bets on the other candidates who might win in his stead. It amounted to an active week of trading on the political prediction marketplace, which fashions itself as a more accurate alternative to public polls. And federal regulators are looking to outlaw it. The U.S. government has embarked on a broad crackdown against election betting, relying on a mix of newly proposed rules and ongoing court cases to try to stamp out a nascent...

Brazen thieves on bikes raided three 7-Eleven stores in California in the space of half an hour, smashing their way in and taking all they could carry. About 20 robbers swarmed inside the shops in Hollywood, grabbing food, drinks, cigarettes and anything else on shelves. Staff could only stand by helplessly as their convenience stores were ransacked in the blink of an eye before the invaders moved on to the next. The raids lasted a matter of minutes each, starting at 8:02pm on Friday when the 7040 West Sunset Boulevard store was hit, police said. Another near Hollywood and Highland...

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that the US didn’t know about Ukraine’s plans to invade Russia’s Kursk Region, but that’s unbelievable since there’s no way that its intelligence services didn’t even catch a hint of it, not to mention likely participate in the preparations.Putin even reaffirmed during a meeting on Monday with high-ranking government officials about this crisis that Ukraine is the West’s proxy for waging war on Russia. Here are the five reasons why the US is still playing dumb:1. Maintain Plausible Deniability For Escalation ControlAdmitting complicity in Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s universally recognized territory would make...

One of the great mysteries about the January 6, 2021, events is the lack of curiosity by the FBI about who planted the pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC headquarters. Amid all of the available CCTV video and surveillance technology exploited by the justice department, their transparent unwillingness to identify the pipe bomber has always been a dog that did not bark.The Occam’s Razor explanation for why DC and federal law enforcement have been incurious, points to law enforcement actually planting the bombs. New CCTV video seems to show exactly that.Shortly after 12:51pm a DC police SUV appears next...

A couple weeks ago there was some surprising news out of New York. Planned Parenthood announced it would stop doing late-term abortions (those after 20 weeks) and also planned to close four clinics in the state. The problem in New York wasn't the legality of their business, it was the profitability. PP's president wrote in an opinion piece that because of inflation they were in trouble unless the state started directing more public money their way.Today, the NY Times published a follow-up in the business section which makes the case that the business of abortion is not going well almost...

According to the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of Protestant evangelicals (those who emphasize the importance of a personal conversion to Christ) are supportive of President Donald Trump over a Democratic candidate. This is the largest demographic split between Republicans and Democrats of any sample group, whether blacks (only 71% favor Harris), Hispanics (the two are statistically tied), homosexuals (70% favor Harris), female voters (55% favor Harris), male voters (56% favor Trump) or even gun owners (61% favor Trump). But a whopping 81% of evangelicals agree that not only does the Democratic Party contradict their faith, it contradicts their...

The Democratic National Convention is coming to the Windy City starting Monday, and if you're a Chicagoan, that might not be welcome news—unless you're a fan of violent protests of course. The pro-Hamas crowd is expected to descend on the convention in force, and demonstrations are all but assured. Some of those planning to attend the event are nervous, and law enforcement has warned them to be careful:House Democrats attending the Democratic National Convention next week are being advised by congressional security officials not to book hotel rooms under their own names or engage with protesters if confronted, Axios has...

If you own a home, you've probably heard the age-old advice to pay more on your mortgage so you can pay it off faster. But what happens when you don't have thousands extra to throw at your mortgage each month? There's a really simple way to pay a little extra -- by making mortgage payments every two weeks. Don't worry, you're not doubling your costs! Instead, you pay half your mortgage payment each time. It's a great strategy for sticking to a budget since many jobs pay every two weeks. And, because there are 52 weeks in a year, you'll...

Former President Donald Trump declared there has “never been a more dangerous time since the Holocaust” to be Jewish in the US on Saturday night. The Republican presidential candidate made the remarks at a campaign rally event in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, where he claimed Vice President Kamala Harris decided against choosing Penn. Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate because he is Jewish. “They turned him down because he’s Jewish,” Trump told a packed house at the Mohegan Sun Arena. “They turned him down for other reasons, but the primary reason is because he’s Jewish,” the ex-president continued, adding that “any...

The United States provided safe harbor for decades for mass-murderer warlords who tortured, raped and cannibalized their countrymen in West Africa before settling in America alongside their victims’ relatives. Upon ransacking Liberia in civil wars that left approximately 250,000 people dead in the 1990s and 2000s, the violent war criminals sought shelter in the U.S. and hid among refugees that had been forced to flee. The warlords took advantage of Americans’ generosity and the federal government’s immigration policies and procedures to pursue the American Dream without, in many cases, even bothering to conceal their identities. In various cases, the warlords’...

This is another nearly tragic story out of Charm City that thankfully didn't end as horribly as it might have, and could (possibly) even carry some positive portents for the future. The very bad part of our story unfolded in May of last year on a school bus in Prince George's County, Maryland. A school bus driver stopped to pick up some teens who proceeded to board the bus. But rather than sitting down and heading to school, 16-year-old Kaeden Holland, who went by the handle of "Baby K," approached a 14-year-old boy on the bus with two of his...

Bob Woodward, a far-left author and Washington Post editor, is set to drop an ‘October surprise’ on Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. Far-left author Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will drop several bombshells on October 15. Per RealClearInvestigations reporter Paul Sperry: OCTOBER SURPRISE: A source close to Bob Woodward says his forthcoming book, “War,” about the Biden-Harris administration’s inner workings will “not be kind to Biden or Kamala” and will drop several bombshells on Oct. 15 when Simon & Schuster releases the tome … developing … Simon and Schuster called Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book ‘War,’...

CHICAGO — A group of officials elected to provide oversight of the police in one of the most violence-plagued areas of Chicago released an unusual statement on Saturday afternoon. The Austin (15th) District Councilors decided to speak out after gunmen ambushed a victim in a targeted daytime attack that was caught on video Wednesday morning. It was caught on video, showing three gunmen opening fire on the victim, with two killers firing round after round, one from a rifle, at close range even after he had fallen to the ground. (We are not publishing the video on this page due...

Popular comedian and “America’s Got Talent” contestant Perry Kurtz died in a hit-and-run incident Thursday at the age of 73. The beloved comedian was involved in a fatal collision in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Tarzana at roughly 11:20 pm, according to TMZ. Initial reports indicate he died after a gray Honda Civic struck him. Members of the Los Angeles Fire Department pronounced Kurtz dead on-scene immediately upon their arrival, according to The New York Post. Sources connected to law enforcement said police have arrested a suspect on suspicion of felony hit-and-run causing death, according to TMZ. A press release...

what is/are the new updated apocalypse scenario(s)? two branches: 1. financial related 2. overseas war related (i want to prepare)

Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News, who met with Chavez Rodriguez, said she agreed that “the killing has to stop.” In response, Siblani said he pressed: “How? There is no plan.”

The modern era of Archie Comics has seen the company rapidly diversify the world of Riverdale and beyond—not just in style and tone since the reboot of Archie in 2015, but in its view of its characters and their identities, from the introduction of queer characters to moves like revealing Jughead’s asexuality. Now, in the realm of its horror imprint, the publisher is ready to take a major step. io9 can exclusively reveal that the next upcoming chapter in the story of Jinx Holliday—inspired by the old Archie character Li’l Jinx, and revived for Jinx: Grim Fairy Tales last year...

A New York Republican and Trump diehard claims she was barred from entering Citi Field until she took off her “Make America Great Again” hat, a decision the organization claimed was a mistake. Aura Moody and her friend Taisha were both wearing MAGA hats when they arrived at the venue for the Mets game Wednesday night, along with other members of the Queens Village Republican Club. They had just made it past security when a Citi Field staffer told them they were not allowed inside with their Trump gear on, she said. “The United States of America is no longer...

Left-leaning media outlets like MSNBC are doing their best to protect Vice President Kamala Harris from scrutiny. As Ben Shapiro has been so keen on pointing out these last few weeks, it’s been nearly 30 days since Harris became the de facto Democrat nominee, and not once in that time has the media asked her an adversarial question. The media, which once loathed Harris, has provided nothing but glowing coverage of her. It hasn’t pushed her to lay out her policy proposals or explain how her new administration would be any different than the disastrously unpopular one she is currently...

Politico, along with almost the rest of the media, seems to be be suffering from a strong dose of convenient memory lapse when it comes to the upcoming sentencing of Donald Trump by the highly biased Judge Juan Merchan in the Manhattan hush money trial.In early June a possible incident of jury tampering came to light when a poster going by the name of "Michael Anderson" claimed on the court's Facebook page that his cousin, supposedly a juror in a trial, had informed him that they voted for conviction a day before that conviction was officially announced. It was widely...