Free Republic

Democrats in Congress are advancing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021. If enacted, this bill would ban state right-to-work laws and severely curtail the "gig" economy. In right-to-work states workers are not required to be union members in order to be employed. The "gig" economy consists of individuals working as independent contractors. Co-sponsor of the bill, House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Robert Scott (D-VA) pointed out that "both the right-to-work and the 'gig' economy impede a union's efforts to organize an employer's workforce. Allowing people to work without belonging to a union undermines socialist...

Oh My. Documents released this evening tie millions from foreign sources to the Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and John Kerry and his family! Documents reportedly leaked from the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office show complex money transfers from foreign sources into former President Obama’s Vice President and Secretary of State’s families –

I’d come back [from campaigning] too tired to talk to [my wife, Neilia]," freshman Senator Joe Biden bragged to Kitty Kelley in a 1974 interview. "I might satisfy her in bed but I didn’t have much time for anything else." Because every woman just loves silent wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. Not! That was perhaps the most loathsome statement Joe made during the interview but there were plenty more toe-curling moments. His greed, his temptation towards corruption and his ambition to install himself in the White House were already apparent in 1974. Oh yes! This is a long, long con. Before there was Joe...

Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude warned viewers of MSNBC's Morning Joe show not to allow selfishness to lure them into voting for Trump. "I know a lot of you are tempted to place your own prosperity ahead of social justice and vote for Trump's reelection," Glaude said. "Well, DON'T DO IT!" "Granted, Trump's economic policies of deregulation and tax cuts have helped spur a booming economy," the Professor admitted. "Unemployment was at historic lows for minorities before the pandemic and the lockdowns hit. Likewise, stock prices have rallied back to where they were in January—enriching every person who has an IRA...

Steve Bannon, ‘We Build The Wall’ organizers arrested, charged with defrauding donors Steve Bannon has been federally indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection to a crowdfunding campaign to build a border wall. Bannon was arrested this morning in Washington, D.C. on charges he and others allegedly made false representations about the “We Build the Wall campaign.” Bannon, 66 is expected to appear in court virtually on Thursday. Prosecutors said Bannon and others defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors to the online campaign by falsely assuring them the organizers were not taking a penny of...

Pop star Taylor Swift said the Soros Family is driven by “shameless greed in the time of coronavirus” over their role in the digital release of an unapproved album composed of a live radio show performance she did in 2008. The left-wing singer shredded Soros and power manager Scooter Braun in a lengthy Instagram message. “Hey Guys – I want to thank my fans for making me aware that my former record label is putting out an “album” of live performances of mine tonight. This recording is from a 2008 radio show performance I did when I was 18. Big...

A Chinese government-backed property giant has secretly raided in bulk Australia’s supplies of masks, hand sanitiser, antibacterial wipes and essential medical supplies and shipped them back to China. The Greenland Group, which manages high-end real estate projects in Sydney and Melbourne, proactively drained Australian supplies of anti-coronavirus equipment, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Three million surgical masks, 500,000 pairs of gloves and bulk supplies of sanitiser and wipes were bought up in Australia and other countries where Greenland operates. While the bulk purchases and shipping were perfectly legitimate, the goods shipped in bulk to China include the very items that...

The vast majority of key ingredients for drugs that many Americans rely on are manufactured abroad, mostly in China. Antibiotics, which turn life-threatening infections into minor nuisances, are considered the single biggest advance in modern medicine. A leading Chinese economist gave voice to the worst fears of U.S. policymakers in March, in a speech to an annual national congress.

Convinced that police forces are irredeemable bastions of racism, some leftist philosophers are arguing for the abolition of city law-enforcement officers. In Seattle, narrowly defeated city council candidate Shaun Scott contends that police are an "apparatus of overaggressive and racist policing that has emerged to steer many black and brown bodies back into, in essence, a form of slavery. Keeping poor people from taking what they need from those who already have more than they need because police call this theft is morally wrong." Mychal Denzel Smith wrote an article in The Nation saying that "police should be replaced by...

What are the social responsibilities of wealthy Christians? Must they prove their loyalty to the Lord by selling their possessions and giving to the poor? Are there simple, universal answers to these questions, or are these questions that must be answered personally and individually?Some of these issues were raised decades ago in Ronald Sider’s classic work Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, originally published in 1978. With many of us in the West having so much and many in other countries having so little, what would Jesus ask of us?David Chilton took exception to Sider’s approach, writing, Productive Christians...

[Catholic Caucus] Mercy in Action: Vatican Defrocks a Whole Community Eight Augustinian Fathers of the former Vicariate of Castile in Brazil have been "defrocked" by the Vatican, Folha de S. Paulo (September 14) reported. Their crime: They refused to hand over their schools to the Augustinian Province of Brazil. The Province was only created in 2013 by a merger of three groups: the Augustinian Vicariate of Castile (Spain), the Augustinian Delegation of Malta, and the Filipino Augustinians of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in Brazil. From the very beginning, the Vicariate of Castile disagreed with how the merger was...

Capitalism is getting a bad rap lately by the small but growing contingent of democratic socialists infecting Congress. So what exactly is this threat from which they seek to save us? Capitalism is based on free and voluntary exchange of goods. The only way you can prosper is to provide something other people want. If you are a farmer and produce wheat, someone else will exchange what he has produced (or use a medium of exchange such as money) to trade for your wheat. No one is forced to do anything. If you sell $1's worth of wheat to a...

Apple has activated a “dormant software lock” that effectively kneecaps third-party replacement batteries on some newer models of iPhone Even using another Apple battery doesn’t work, according to iFixit, as a replacement battery can apparently only be authenticated using the company’s internal tools: iFixit compared the practice to having a “Check Oil” light in a vehicle that can only be deactivated at a Ford dealership.

When President Donald Trump begrudgingly signed a budget deal he called “ridiculous” in order to get increases for the military budget, he asserted: “I’m not going to do it again.” That was 16 months ago. Now, the Trump administration and House Democrats reportedly have reached a deal to suspend the debt limit temporarily and increase spending by more than $300 billion with only limited cuts. Around 5:45 p.m. in Washington, the president tweeted: "I am pleased to announce that a deal has been struck with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy...

Big war in the Arctic: How could it happen? In-Depth Coverage By Mikhail Khodarenok 8 Jul, 2019 14:48 The Arctic’s ice cover is melting, which presents new economic opportunities for the Arctic states, while also making the competition between them stiffer. Can these opposing interests lead to a large-scale war in the region? The fight for the resource-rich region now involves not just the Arctic Ocean countries –the US, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark– but powers from other regions as well, such as, for instance, China. Polar research is no longer a purely scientific endeavor, the focus has now shifted...

“Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” That’s from President Donald Trump’s last State of the Union address. I’m sure many people found it as encouraging as I did, especially in light of surveys indicating that socialism is gaining popularity here in the United States. And not just at the fringes. One recent Gallup poll showed 4 out of 10 Americans have a favorable impression of socialism. Almost half—47%—said they would vote for a socialist candidate for president. But don’t despair just yet. The same poll also revealed that almost 2 out of every...

The number of acres of U.S. farmland held by foreign-owned investors has doubled in the past two decades, raising alarm bells in farming communities. American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities. When the stock market tanked during the last recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland....

From reparations to "baby bonds," Democratic candidates are proposing big ideas to confront inequality. If you’ve been to an event with a Democrat running for president this year, there's a good chance you’ve heard about it: the racial wealth gap. Candidates are regularly bringing up the fact that the typical black family has only one-tenth the assets of the typical white family — a divide that has grown larger than it was 35 years ago. Far from a niche concern, candidates have incorporated it into their signature proposals. They've addressed it in speeches not just to black churches in South...

Actual title: Congress Is About to Ban the Government From Offering Free Online Tax Filing. Thank TurboTax. Just in time for Tax Day, the for-profit tax preparation industry is about to realize one of its long-sought goals. Congressional Democrats and Republicans are moving to permanently bar the IRS from creating a free electronic tax filing system. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., passed the Taxpayer First Act, a wide-ranging bill making several administrative changes to the IRS that is sponsored by Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa. In one of...

Two points about today’s political economy – and then a prediction involving Illinois: Point One: What’s coming is poetic justice for the aristocracy.  The wave of populism/socialism/proto-fascism that’s sweeping the US and Europe is a direct result of the breathtaking hubris of a ruling class that didn’t know when to quit stealing. While it is possible for societies dominated by a small group of rich/connected people to endure and even thrive, they can do so only if the 99% enjoys a rising standard of living and a certain amount of upward mobility. In other words, people will accept the existence...