Free Republic

MAGA-aligned billionaires Larry Ellison and his son David have dramatically won a bidding war for CNN’s parent company—and are now on track to turn it Trumpy. Their Paramount Skydance company suddenly has won its bidding war against Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after upping its bad and the younger Ellison attending Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. The move comes two days after Paramount Skydance revised its offer for the media conglomerate which also owns HBO, and is Hollywood’s biggest movie make, from $30 per share to $31 per share. Once the deal goes through CNN is widely...

The U.S. military shot down a Customs and Homeland Security drone on Thursday evening, which led to the abrupt closure of airspace over Fort Hancock, Texas, lawmakers said. At 6:30 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration closed the airspace, citing “special security reasons.” The FAA’s official notice of the closure currently says the closure will remain in effect until June 24. As it turns out, the “special security reasons” involved a friendly fire incident in which the U.S. military shot down a Customs and Border Protection drone using a laser-based anti-drone system. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), the top Democrat...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, Religious Freedom and the Media. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

'I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes,' Hillary said after her testimony on Thursday. 'It then got, at the end, quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizza-gate, one of the most vile bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet.' Pizza-gate is a debunked conspiracy theory that claimed a pedophilia ring involving high-ranking Democratic Party officials was operating out of the basement of a Washington, DC pizza parlor. Bill...

On Thursday, Apple announced iPhone and iPad are the first and only consumer devices in compliance with the information assurance requirements of NATO nations. This enables iPhone and iPad to be used with classified information up to the NATO restricted level without requiring special software or settings — a level of government certification no other consumer mobile device has met. Apple designs security into all of its products from the start, ensuring the most sophisticated protections are built in across hardware, software, and Apple silicon. This unique approach allows Apple users to benefit from industry-leading security protections such as best-in-class...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. Pull up a seat and relax. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup or a glass, and start a conversation. You never know who you might meet...

A federal lawmaker introduced legislation Thursday aimed at cracking down on alleged fraud within a federal program that paid for dead people’s phone and internet service. Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is targeting the federal Lifeline program, which subsidizes the services for low-income Americans, after California was accused of taking in $3.8 million between 2020 and 2025 to cover the costs for 94,000 dead people. “While Californians are taxed to the grave and back, its governor especially can’t pass the buck when the state is allowing providers to enroll dead people in a federal program,” Ernst told The Post. A...

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) emerged as the likely winner in a m, after streaming giant Netflix (NFLX), on Thursday refused to raise its bid for the storied Hollywood studio. "We've always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid," Netflix said in a statement. Netflix confirmed to Reuters that it was walking away from bidding for Warner Bros Discovery. The Warner Bros board still has to terminate the Netflix deal and adopt Paramount Skydance's offer. "Once our board votes...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday revealed that childhood and teen obesity rates in the U.S. have reached record highs in recent years. The first report details how the CDC’s researchers found that 40.3 percent of adults 20 and older were found to be obese, which included 9.7 percent who have severe obesity and another 31.7 percent who are classified as overweight. This report was conducted between August 2021 and August 2023. Between 1988 and 1994, when the second report was being surveyed, researchers found that almost 23 percent of adults 20 years and older were...

Minnesota lawmakers have filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Keith Ellison and Gov. Tim Walz. State Reps. Drew Roach, Ben Davis, and Mike Wiener, of the Minnesota Freedom Caucus, filed the documents. The lawmakers allege that the leaders allowed state residents to commit rampant fraud. Criminals allegedly stole about $9 billion worth of benefits across 14 benefit programs meant to help feed hungry kids, help kids with autism, and help families find housing. This week, Vice President J.D. Vance announced that the federal government is freezing $259 million in payments to the state's Medicare program until it complies with...

'This folly must stop'Reformed Baptist theologian and retired pastor John Piper faced overwhelmingly negative responses to a Wednesday X post that quoted an Old Testament verse about welcoming the stranger, which many took as a veiled take on U.S. immigration policy."You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God," Piper tweeted, quoting Leviticus 19:34. "Christians know the miserable bondage we were all in."Piper's post, which has drawn more than 638,000 views as of...

An alleged Sinaloa Cartel leader has been charged with narcoterrorism and drug trafficking, and a reward of up to $5 million each is being offered for information leading to his capture, as well as the arrest of his brother, federal prosecutors in San Diego said Thursday. Narcoterrorism is a new charge and term that stems from the Trump administration's designation of some cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel. Mexico has also worked with this administration to send some people to the U.S. for prosecution. Rene Arzate-Garcia, also known as "La Rana," is described by prosecutors in court...

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced a new licensing policy to streamline the resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, with the goal of supporting the island’s private sector and bolstering humanitarian efforts amid ongoing fuel crises. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) will extend the new licensing policy to specific applications seeking authorization for the resale of Venezuelan oil for use in Cuba.The move was done “in accordance with the United States’ support and solidarity for the Cuban people,” reads the new policy.The policy does not cover entities or persons connected to the Cuban military, intelligence services, or...

“Nobody knows nothin’.”—Jack BogleThe legendary Jack Bogle was referring to the financial market, but his sentiment also applies to crime statistics: Nobody really knows the actual crime rate — or who’s committing the crimes.For about 10 years, I did PR for a fintech company that specialized in cybersecurity. You’d think online crimes would be the easiest to verify, but most of the crime stats were manufactured: We’d extrapolate data from Category A and project it to Category B.They were almost always statistical projections.Look, if we can’t accurately quantify crime stats in a closed ecosystem like cybersecurity, we don’t have a...

Brazilian Archbishop Declares Excommunication for Attending Latin Mass Outside Approved SiteArchbishop Carlos Alberto Breis Pereira, 60, of Maceió, Brazil, has warned that celebrating or attending the Mass in the Roman rite outside of his one authorized location will result in excommunication.The diocesan note was issued on February 11 on FaceBook.com (below). It reads:“The Archdiocese of Maceió informs the faithful who reside within its jurisdiction that, if they wish to participate in the so-called ‘Tridentine Masses’ or in those celebrated according to the Roman Missal of Saint Pius V, promulgated by Pope Saint Pius V in 1570, in the Latin language,...

Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Trump administration is pressing Kyiv to agree to painful territorial concessions as the price for peace. In a draft peace agreement first reported by Axios in November, the administration proposed that the entire regions of Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk be recognized as de facto Russian territory and that Russia retain control of the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia its forces now occupy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing back, refusing to do anything that would violate his country’s territorial integrity. Yet the realities of the battlefield are not on his side....

The Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray spoke out Wednesday after massive layoffs recently rocked the outlet. "I'd say the reality is that the Post had been facing some decline for quite some time," Murray told Semafor media editor Max Tani at the Restoring Trust in Media Summit in Washington, D.C. "The data really demonstrated that." Murray added that the Post had been on a five-year trajectory of "losing revenues" and seeing subscriptions "wane." He said the outlet invested in editing resources and "some areas of coverage" during the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to adjust to the "new level...

The hosting of Tommy Robinson by the Trump administration has been condemned by British MPs amid calls for the US to be included in a probe into foreign interference in UK politics. The far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is being feted in the US, where he met figures including a political appointee at the Department of State in Washington DC and a congressman. The visit has prompted questions about how Robinson – a former member of the extreme-right British National party and a leader in recent decades of street protests that have often turned violent – was...

Sometimes people just vote with their feet. And a new poll out this week suggests many New Yorkers might be willing to do just that. The Marist poll reveals that one in three New Yorkers are planning to leave the State in the next five years. After the week we’ve just had I suppose you might sympathize with the 7% of respondents who said they want to leave because they’re fed up with the weather. It hasn’t been much fun trying to get around the streets as Mayor Mamdani´s paid volunteers made their unsupervised efforts to push the snow around....

Actor Crispin Glover, most well-known for playing the iconic role of George McFly in arguably one of the greatest films of all time, Back to the Future, now faces allegations of battery and fraud in a new lawsuit filed by an unnamed woman who claims he “essentially held her captive and used her for sex and free labor.” Anyone who has followed Glover’s career, both on screen and off, probably won’t feel surprised by the allegations. The guy has always been an oddball. Do a quick YouTube search of his late-night talk show appearances and you’ll see exactly what that...