Free Republic

As the November elections near, many Democratic senators are becoming increasingly vocal about employing the “nuclear option,” a simple majority overrule, to remove the filibuster. According to The Hill, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) began to recirculate discussions with his Democrat colleagues about abolishing the filibuster as Joe Biden’s poll numbers rose. “I am talking with everyone in the caucus about how to make the Senate work and restore it as a legislative body,” he said.

More than a dozen Chinese financial institutions, mainly trust companies, loaned 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) over the past five years to Wuhan Kingold Jewelry Inc. with pure gold as collateral and insurance policies to cover any losses. Kingold is the largest privately owned gold processor in central China's Hubei province. Its shares are listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York. The company is led by Chairman Jia Zhihong, an intimidating ex-military man who is the controlling shareholder. What could go wrong? Well, plenty, as at least some of 83 tons of gold bars used as collateral turned...

The other shoe finally dropped at Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, as federal agents brought long-awaited corruption charges against Councilman Jose Huizar — the second current or former member of the City Council to be accused of taking bribes from businessmen trying to buy special treatment.

By: Hassan Mahmoudi State corruption in Iran has spread its paws among various governmental organizations as well as those affiliated with the ruling elite in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution. According to the International Transparency Organization's report of 2020, the Islamic Republic of Iran ranks 146 among 180 countries when it comes to financial corruption, falling eight ranks in comparison with last year's ranking. But in a blatant act in June 2018, Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, denied institutionalized corruption in his regime while addressing some students: "I am fully informed that corruption is neither vast nor systematic in...

Just a few months after Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company landed a deal with an Obama administration renewable energy program that had been championed by one of his father's key vice presidential advisers, newly released State Department memos show. The Memorandum of Understanding between Burisma and USAID's Municipal Energy Reform Project in Ukraine (MERP) was signed in October 2014, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by Just the News under the Freedom of Information Act. At that time, Burisma was under very public investigations by both the British government and the...

New York City’s ambitious contact-tracing program, a crucial initiative in the effort to curb the coronavirus, has gotten off to a worrisome start just as the city’s reopening enters a new phase on Monday, with outdoor dining, in-store shopping and office work resuming. The city has hired 3,000 disease detectives and case monitors, who are supposed to identify anyone who has come into contact with the hundreds of people who are still testing positive for the virus in the city every day. But the first statistics from the program, which began on June 1, indicate that tracers are often unable...

The Democrat, MSM and Republican traitors undermining our country have used Covid-19 in their bid to unseat our duly elected president.Our enemies are desperate so Covid-19 is their Swiss-Army knife of strategies:Lockdown(s) to destroy the economic gains President Trump achievedLockdown(s) to destroy jobs and unemployment reductions President Trump achievedLockdown(s) to stop the obvious defection of Dems choosing which rally to attend, the one being held by half-a-brain Biden  or the one held by President Trump.Lockdowns(s) to close churches [isolate people from their communities and sources of strength; undermine them to cultivate hopelessness and fear]Lockdown(s) to increase the death toll. Democratic...

The withdrawal of $475,000 in cash by the man who killed 22 Nova Scotians in April matches the method the RCMP uses to send money to confidential informants and agents, sources say. Gabriel Wortman, who is responsible for the largest mass killing in Canadian history, withdrew the money from a Brink’s depot in Dartmouth, N.S., on March 30, stashing a carryall filled with hundred-dollar bills in the trunk of his car. According to a source close to the police investigation the money came from CIBC Intria, a subsidiary of the chartered bank that handles currency transactions. Sources in both banking...

FAKE NEWS MEDIAMany Newspapers are Refusing to Publish Mugshot Galleries Because the Criminals Aren’t White They say it enforces negative stereotypes. Published 1 day ago on Jun 18, 2020By Shane Trejo ShareTweetFlipPrint There is a growing trend of newspapers across the country that are refusing to publish mugshot galleries because the pictures of minority criminals are supposedly reinforcing negative stereotypes. The Tampa Bay Times announced on Monday that they would stop publishing mugshot galleries due to concerns that they “disproportionately show black and brown faces.” “The galleries lack context and further negative stereotypes,” Tampa Bay Times executive editor Mark Katches...

An ongoing inquiry by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) into grantees’ failures to disclose foreign ties has resulted in the firings and resignations of 54 scientists.The NIH investigation has probed 189 scientists for undisclosed foreign ties, with 93 percent of the hidden funding coming from China. Some 77 grantees have been removed from the NIH system as a result of the probe.The numbers were revealed on June 12 in a presentation by Michael Lauer, the NIH deputy director for extramural research. The NIH’s effort dates back to August 2018, when the organization warned universities across the nation that...

At least four times now Justice John Roberts has betrayed the conservatives. Further he has twisted the law and written decisions that were legal contortions inconsistent with his legal ability and history. What has been going on? What could have motivated him to betray his country and his legal integrity like that? It has been suggested that Roberts is secretly homosexual, and he did pro-bono work for gay activists back in 1996, but the stigma attached to that has effectively been removed by societal changes over the decades. He appears to be happily married in the normal sense. It has...

The attempted bribe was described as the “biggest reported bribe attempt in Ukrainian history.” Three individuals with ties to Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, are being accused of attempting to bribe anti-corruption officials in Ukraine to end the investigation into the company and its founder for embezzlement. Zlochevsky denies involvement in the scheme. **SNIP** How can that be the most substantial bribe in Ukraine history? Joe Biden gave them a billion dollars for firing the prosecutor that was investigating Burisma. That’s what Joe said. **SNIP** Whether or not the actions of Joe Biden and his son Hunter crossed...

The Fort Worth Police Department is addressing a report by Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson regarding the May 31 protests. In a statement published on Monday, the police department called Carlson's report "absolutely inaccurate." According to Fort Worth police, Carlson reported that protestors looted and vandalized businesses and "dozens of rioters were arrested for this." Carlson also claimed that Police Chief Ed Kraus "dropped all charges against the rioters."

The NYPD announced Monday it is eliminating its anti-crime unit, a group of plainclothes officers who blend in to fight crime but have caused tension in relations with the communities. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea described the move as a massive cultural shift for the department, saying the 600 officers who are part of the unit will be transitioned to other departments, including the detective bureau and neighborhood policing." This is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city," he said. "I would consider this in the realm of closing one of the last chapters...

It’s 1937 in Berlin… – No, wait, it’s 2020 in New York City, and Mayor Warren Wilhelm – who changed his name to Bill de Blasio years ago for some odd reason – is doing this at the largest park in Brooklyn’s main Jewish neighborhood: Joel Fischer @JFNYC1 Yes. This is actually happening now! Bill de Blasio is Welding the gates at the biggest park in the Jewish community, (Borough Park, Brooklyn) So your child shouldn't try to break in. While Hundreds of thousands of people gathered yesterday at Brooklyn Museum.#deBlasioMustGo Embedded video 4,763 10:09 AM - Jun 15, 2020...

Some 54 scientists have resigned or been fired as a result of an ongoing investigation by the National Institutes of Health into the failure of NIH grantees to disclose financial ties to foreign governments. In 93% of those cases, the hidden funding came from a Chinese institution. The new numbers come from Michael Lauer, NIH’s head of extramural research. Lauer had previously provided some information on the scope of NIH’s investigation, which had targeted 189 scientists at 87 institutions. But his presentation today to a senior advisory panel offered by far the most detailed breakout of an effort NIH launched...

A Sutter County judge granted a request Friday by two GOP legislators to temporarily block an executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would require that all active California voters receive a mail ballot for the November election. The order provoked a fiery response from Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who dismissed the assemblymen’s legal challenge as “a reckless publicity stunt.” The temporary restraining order by Superior Court Judge Perry Parker, which was sought by Assemblymen James Gallagher of Nicolaus (Sutter County) and Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County), sets a June 26 hearing in Yuba City to determine whether...

News Analysis The case of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is inevitably heading toward its conclusion. While the presiding district judge, Emmet Sullivan, is trying to keep it going, there’s only so much he can do, chiefly because there’s nobody left to prosecute the case after the Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped it last month. In the latest developments, the District of Columbia appeals court set a hearing in the case on June 12, while the DOJ’s solicitor general himself, as well as five of his deputies, urged the court to order the lower-court judge to accept the case dismissal. “I...

The truth is that the United States is defending more than just its position in the international system. We are defending the international system itself, the system of treaties, conventions, rules, and norms. Unfortunately, Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, does not believe in that system. He is trying to impose China's imperial‑era notions of the world. In short, Chinese rulers believed that they had the mandate of heaven over tianxia, meaning "all under heaven." Recently, his pronouncements have become unmistakable. In the last few months, Xi Jinping has seen an historic opportunity because the United States has been stricken by...

Midtown Manhattan and Times Square looked like a war zone Tuesday. The mayor and his would-be successors are a lost cause, but if Gov. Cuomo won’t stop the looting, we’ll lose our retail tax base and hundreds of thousands of jobs — for years. Macy’s, Bergdorf Goodman — icons of New York, windows smashed. But that’s not the worst part: It was clear that the office-building and retail managers and workers were bracing for more. From Central Park South through Rockefeller Center through the Bowtie to Herald Square, hundreds of essential workers — most of them minority men — scrambled...