Free Republic

At least two out of of five Memphis police officers charged with murder in the fatal beatdown of Tyre Nichols joined the force after the department relaxed its hiring requirements. Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley both joined the Memphis Police Department in Aug. 2020, NBC News reported, more than two years after the department dramatically loosened the education qualifications to become an officer. Recruits no longer needed an associate’s degree or 54 college credit hours to join the force, and could get by with five years of work experience, Action 5 reported. Loosening the required qualifications however means that the...

In the face of sky-high rents, President Joe Biden is rolling out a new set of principles the White House is calling a "Renters Bill of Rights" in an effort to improve rent affordability and protections for tenants. The president is directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to examine limits on rent increases for future investments and actions promoting renter protections. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been tapped to root out practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing. This rollout comes as progressive Democrats have...

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm claimed Monday that “international and climate events” were to blame for price increases at the pump. “It’s obviously based upon international and climate events, so, for example, Winter Storm Elliot pulled two million barrels off the U.S. market,” Granholm said during a White House press briefing. “That crimp in supply causes prices to go up.” The average price of a gallon of gas is $3.423, up from $3.096 a month ago, according to AAA. Biden has taken credit for lower gas prices in the past, even though a gallon of gas cost an average of...

The snickering can be heard all the way from Beijing... The call to ban gas stoves in the U.S., based on environmental concerns, certainly drew backlash from an angry public tired of seeing their household appliances, critical possessions and standard of living being targeted. After all, they've already gotten our incandescent light bulbs and flush toilets in many quarters. They've meddled with the design of our cars and guns. They're trying to get our meat, telling us to eat bugs instead. Many consumers, and professional chefs, who say gas is best for cooking, simply put their collective foot down. Where...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world is in a "sorry state" while speaking in Davos at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on Wednesday. Guterres said a number of issues, including climate change and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are "piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash." The UN chief said that increasing geopolitical division is undermining efforts to tackle global challenges such as soaring inflation and supply-chain disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that high debt levels are "pounding" developing countries. Guterres said the world is "looking into the eye of a Category 5 hurricane."...

Food companies that have increased their profits as inflation surged should pay windfall taxes to help tackle global inequality, anti-poverty group Oxfam said on Monday at the Swiss ski resort of Davos as the World Economic Forum kicks off this week. The organization asserted that food companies — like energy companies — have used climate change, the surging cost of living, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to increase prices for consumers. Oxfam said the world's top 1% gained nearly twice as much wealth as the remaining 99% combined. Meanwhile, 1.7 billion workers live in...

The world's political and business elites gather for the annual Davos summit from Monday to promote "cooperation in a fragmented world", with war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and global trade tensions high on the agenda. For half a century, the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps has brought together executives and policymakers to sing the praises of globalisation, but that process is seen as unwinding as new fault lines harden around the world. The Covid-19 pandemic, growing US-China hostility and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have led some politicians and experts to even speculate about "an end to the...

Americans established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to celebrate the man and his righteous quest for all Americans to have equal justice under the law. MLK Day reminds us that anyone can succeed in America if they have hope and resolve. The day also commemorates the beauty of King's vision of Americans living together in harmony. But the woke activists now pushing "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) initiatives across the country effectively reach the opposite of every positive belief King held. From encouraging riots to abandoning the vision of a color-blind America, today's woke activists have no legitimate right to...

When it's not creating social injustices to overcome, the left is busy creating victims to maintain its voter base. In modern America, the Democrat party voter base is composed primarily of individuals who perceive themselves to be disadvantaged, disenfranchised, marginalized, or in some fashion left out. They feel, in some sense, victimized. With the actual numbers of those truly victimized declining markedly in recent decades, the party needs to perpetuate perceived victimhood to maintain its political appeal. The party excels in generating victims over a broad spectrum of societal factions through identity politics and its D-I-E agenda. -People of color....

The seventh dead whale in a little over a month washed up on the Jersey Shore this week, sparking a debate about the impact of off-shore activities on marine life. The 20-foot-long humpback whale was found on the beach on Thursday afternoon in Brigantine, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) confirmed Friday. “Due to the incoming tide and low light last night, staff returned at daybreak this morning to take photos,” the update read. “Plans are underway for a necropsy to be performed on the animal.” Thursday’s discovery occurred just miles from where another dead whale was found in Atlantic...

Many of the brightest minds have been trying to find the tools to stop Agenda21/Great Reset (and all the other aliases for setting up a one-world government). The authors of Re-Remembering the Mis-Remembered Left: The Left’s Strategy and Tactics to Transform America, state at the end: “It is the conclusion of this analysis that current opposition to the Left, from mainstream and conservatives alike, is not just out of position to be able to mount a strategic response. It is precisely in the position the Left placed it in order to play the role scripted for it.” [1] We need...

There is a cohort of elected officials in the United States presently engaged in an anti-capitalist crusade against free-market principles. No, they are not socialists. They are congressional Republicans, and they are attempting to prevent financial institutions from allocating capital in accordance with investor preferences and risk management principles. This attempted crackdown is purely ideological in nature — it is an exercise in political pressure to force a gross government overreach into U.S. capital markets. This campaign, which should offend anyone with even a modicum of pro-market sensibilities, is being championed from within the Republican Party. Republican state lawmakers and...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will travel to Europe next week for a five-day trip to promote the state’s recent economic developments and with hopes of attracting new businesses in the automotive and clean energy industries. The Democratic governor will travel to Norway first before heading to Switzerland to speak at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos next week to speak on a panel to discuss “The Return of Manufacturing.” She will be a part of a bipartisan group of governors in Davos that includes Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Whitmer’s...

LONDON (AP) — Climate change is the global economy’s biggest long-term challenge but one the world is least prepared to tackle because of short-term problems led by a cost-of-living crisis, the World Economic Forum said in a report Wednesday. The group’s Global Risks Report, released ahead of its annual gathering of government leaders and business elites next week in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, offers a bleak outlook. The report based on a survey of 1,200 risk experts, industry bosses and policymakers says the biggest challenges over the next decade involve the environment, yet more immediate challenges are distracting...

Twitter users appeared disgusted at the rising price of eggs and called it “ridiculous” as some labeled them a “luxury item.” Multiple users noted the high cost of a carton of eggs at Whole Foods and posted photos showing prices as high as $11.49. “I never thought EGGS would become a luxury item,” conservative commentator Mike Cernovich wrote. The price of eggs has tripled in certain places across the U.S. in the last year, according to CBS News. The price per carton surged as high as 49.1% in November, according to the Consumer Price Index. “$11.49 for eggs at Whole...

Transgender male-to-female actor Michaela Jaé (“MJ”) Rodriguez received a standing ovation at the 80th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday in belated recognition for winning the Golden Globe for lead actress in a drama series last year for FX’s Pose. MJ Rodriguez was recognized by her Pose producer Ryan Murphy during his acceptance speech for the Carol Burnett Award. In his speech, Murphy praised Rodriguez for “making history” for being the “first transgender actress ever to win a Golden Globe.” “Let’s give her the ovation she deserves to hear,” Murphy said. As Breitbart News reported, Rodriguez’s win at last year’s (non-televised)...

China is certainly one of the most totalitarian countries in the world, and such is what endears it to Western Leftists. Yet, even China hasn’t gone as extreme as American liberals have, and this could be a source of irritation to our radicals. Except they are too busy destroying America to care much what China is doing.Still, in several ways, China is more “conservative” than the American left. I want to examine this interesting point.But before I do that, let me mention a couple of matters where China is the idol of the American Left and why. This list could...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the Biden White House, a quartet of four female judges in Colorado encapsulates its mission when it comes to the federal judiciary. Charlotte Sweeney is the first openly LGBT woman to serve on the federal bench west of the Mississippi River and has a background in workers’ rights. Nina Wang, an immigrant from Taiwan, is the first magistrate judge in the state to be elevated to a federal district seat. Regina Rodriguez, who is Latina and Asian American, served in a U.S. attorney’s office. Veronica Rossman, who came from the former Soviet Union with her family...

Communism is everywhere in our society, attacking, attacking, attacking. Here's why. To fight pornography in the schools, a Texas housewife recently appeared at a school board meeting. She lectured the officials: "I do not want my children to learn about anal sex in middle school. ... I want you to start focusing on education, not public health." Education, as we'll see, is the first refuge of scoundrels. Do you imagine that this school board is hip and cutting-edge? In fact, liberals have had few new ideas in more than a century. During World War 1, the communist government of Hungary...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California air regulators voted Thursday to approve an ambitious plan to drastically reduce reliance on fossil fuels by changing practices in the energy, transportation and agriculture sectors, but critics say it doesn’t go far enough to combat climate change. California previously set that carbon neutrality target as a goal, but Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation making it a mandate earlier this year. He has said drastic changes are needed to position California as a global climate leader. The plan does not commit the state to taking any particular actions but sets out a broad roadmap for...