Free Republic

Gov. Tom Wolf has often said he’s “not a politician.” But before a vote on a key climate policy last month, his administration reached for a classic piece of Harrisburg leverage — state funding for local projects — to get Democratic lawmakers in line. On the record, no Democratic lawmakers would acknowledge the tactic. But privately, lawmakers and lobbyists noted that the Democratic Wolf administration implied that gubernatorial sign-off for millions in state aid to lawmakers’ districts was contingent on backing the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI. The threat of withholding state funding is a bit of political hardball...

A damning new report claims that Hunter Biden helped expand Chinese influence in America in a $10 million a year agreement and an $80,000 diamond. In her new book, Laptop from Hell, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, describes Hunter Biden's business dealings with a Chinese-linked energy consortium, called CEFC.

A total of 32 House and Senate Republicans helped push Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package over the finish line, most of whom have been showered with campaign cash from the leading lobbying group behind the bill — the US Chamber of Commerce. Lawmakers run for office, grabbing donations from interest groups, then, after their election, voting for legislation supported by those special interest groups despite their constituents’ opposition. The Chamber had been lobbying for Biden’s infrastructure bill, since the start of the year. By July, Open Secrets reported the Chamber had spent more than $12 million lobbying for the bill...

A panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine booster shots for people 65 years old and older, along with others at high risk of severe COVID-19. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices unanimously voted 15-0 to recommend booster shots for adults 65 and up. ACIP also voted 13-2 that individuals ages 50-64 with underlying health conditions should have access to the vaccine booster shot. ACIP voted to approve the booster shot for individuals ages 18-49 with underlying conditions, so long as they take the shot six months after receiving both initial doses....

As a new semester begins amid a resurgence of the coronavirus, 26 of the 50 largest public university campuses in the U.S. are not mandating that students be vaccinated, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Approaches on enforcement vary widely even among universities that do have vaccine mandates, with some offering leniency for students who opt out and others expelling those who do not comply. Administrators are emphasizing high numbers for student vaccinations as key to bringing some normalcy back to campus and keeping instruction in classrooms rather than online. Where mandates face political opposition, schools are relying...

State efforts to juice Covid-19 vaccination rates through million-dollar lotteries haven’t reversed the steep decline in adults seeking out shots when many pockets of the country remain vulnerable to the coronavirus. While Ohio did see a two-week bump in adult vaccination rates last month after becoming the first state to offer sizable cash prizes, the pace of vaccinations there has already fallen off. And states that followed its headline-grabbing example made some small gains without showing evidence of any comparable surge, a POLITICO analysis of federal and state data shows. “It’s just not working,” said Irwin Redlener, who directs the...

Michael Kail, former veep of IT Operations at Netflix, was convicted on Friday on 28 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering after a federal jury found that he took advantage of his position to demand bribes from vendors. "As Netflix’s Vice President of IT Operations, Michael Kail wielded immense power to approve valuable Netflix contracts with small tech vendors, and he rigged that process to unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks to himself," said Acting United States Attorney Stephanie Hinds in a statement. "Netflix and other companies expect and deserve honest services from its employees."...

A leftist “dark money” group tied to liberal billionaire globalist George Soros has led the push to have Senate Democrats eliminate the filibuster, according to a new report. The Washington Free Beacon reported that the radical group Fix Our Senate “is steering a coalition of 60 progressive groups to pressure moderate Democrats to eliminate the filibuster, which requires a 60-vote supermajority to advance legislation.” Fix Our Senate has existed as a "project" of the leftist “Sixteen Thirty Fund, a nonprofit incubator managed by the D.C.-based consulting firm Arabella Advisors.” Soros’s Open Society Policy Center (OSPC) gave the Sixteen Thirty Fund...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an investigation into the head of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's vaccination program, who had reportedly called county executives to see if they support Cuomo during his multiple scandals. According to The Washington Post, "vaccine czar" Larry Schwartz made the calls that made at least one county official fear that their response could jeopardize the county's ability to get vaccines and would impact the vaccine supply. "What we've heard about the governor and his team trying to link vaccine supply to political support, that is the definition of corruption," de Blasio said during...

Alcee Hastings was appointed to be a federal judge in 1979. In 1981, he was accused of soliciting bribes and obstructing justice ... A special committee of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals began a .. three-year investigation ended with the panel concluding that Hastings did indeed commit perjury, tamper with evidence, and conspire to gain financially by accepting bribes. ... He was impeached by the United States House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate. He was kicked out of his judgeship in 1989. .... Four years later he ran for the U.S. House — a federal office —...

The FBI "asked me to facilitate a bribe for her" amounting to $18 million on behalf of foreign government, he says Overstock CEO Dr. Patrick Byrne claimed the had FBI approached him to bribe Hillary Clinton in 2016 as part of a covert sting operation on behalf of former President Obama. Byrne recently explained in a “SteelTruth” interview with Ann Vandersteel how the FBI recruited him to help them carry out their sting operation against Clinton. “I bribed Hillary Clinton with $18 million. I facilitated a bribe for Hillary Clinton on January 14th 2016 right here in this town on...

Hunter Biden raked in $6m over nine months from his Chinese business dealings according to a timeline of his affairs which goes into unprecedented detail. Joe Biden's son was involved with a series of transactions which were flagged for 'potential financial criminal activity', a Senate report has revealed The money included a $5m payment from a Chinese energy company with ties to the Communist party and $1m for work with an associate who was later jailed for bribery. The payments began days after Hunter sent his infamous email to one associate in 2017 talking about money for 'the big guy'...

In July of this year, Natural News reported how California Gov. Gavin Newsom was caught wiring half a billion dollars to communist China as part of a “massive face mask money laundering scheme.” Back in April, even the mainstream media was questioning what Newsom was up to when it was revealed that he had wired half a billion dollars to an electric car company in China to supposedly purchase “N-95 masks” for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). This decision was never voted on or approved by legislators, and when pressed about the details of the deal, Newsom refused to disclose them....

Grant application turned over under federal court order quadruples polling places from primary, promises as many as 800,000 votes from city in November. Only 675,000 voted in 2016. Documents produced by the city of Philadelphia under a federal court order show millions of dollars in nonprofit grant money donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is being used to quadruple the number of voting places and massively grow the number of ballots cast in the Democratic stronghold on Nov. 3. The memos were turned over in a federal lawsuit filed by the conservative Thomas More Society, and they detail how city...

PREFACE In April 2019 I walked into the United States Department of Justice and told them the story you are about to read. Ten days later the Durham Squad was announced. I do not know if those facts are related. After you read this, your guess will be as good as mine. This is my final installment in the Deep Capture epic. In the future I may use this site to respond to articles and discuss journalism, comment on events, and answer frequently-asked questions, but the 14 year narrative arc of Deep Capture comes to an end here. As this...

Heresy, Sodomy, And Corruption: Bergoglio’s Deep Church At Work And Why Trump Should Get A Closer Look At It This long Marco Tosatti interview to Archbishop Vigano’ reads like a horror tour of all the major plagues of the Church in the XXI Century: doctrinal subversion is fuelled by sexual perversion, amplified by corruption, and the three work together in trying to destroy the Church as the Bride of Christ. In the mind of Bergoglio, Cupich, & Co, the Church should be nothing more than a convenient, comfortable place whence atheist, communists and sodomites promote all the causes of Globalism, as...

Peru's former President Alan García has shot himself as police came to arrest him. Casimiro Ulloa hospital in the capital, Lima, said he was in surgery where he was being treated for "a bullet wound to his head". Mr García is accused of taking bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht - claims he has repeatedly denied. Officers had been sent to arrest him in connection with the allegations. Health minister Zulema Tomás said Mr García's condition was "very serious and critical", and that he had to be resuscitated after suffering three cardiac arrests. "Let's pray to God to give him...

LIMA, Peru — A former president of Peru died on Wednesday after shooting himself in the head when the authorities tried to arrest him in connection with one of the biggest corruption scandals in Latin American history. A personal secretary for the former president, Alan García, 69, confirmed his death. The secretary, Ricardo Pineda, also told a Peruvian radio station that as the authorities arrived at the former president’s home with an arrest warrant, he locked himself into his bedroom, shot himself and was rushed to a hospital. The charges relate to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction giant, which last year...

A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares (Luis Martinelli Linares) and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares (Ricardo Martinelli Linares) for their roles in a massive bribery and money laundering scheme involving Odebrecht S.A. (Odebrecht), a Brazil-based global construction conglomerate. On Dec. 21, 2016, Odebrecht pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of New York to a criminal information charging it with conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for its involvement in the bribery and money laundering scheme. The overarching Odebrecht scheme involved the payment of...