Free Republic

Hey Republicans, it’s time to get out the shovels and dig a very deep hole. Then bury forever the stench and false innuendo coming from the Jeffrey Epstein case. Especially now that the dead monster’s cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell, has told the Justice Department that she never once saw President Trump “acting inappropriately in any way” and that he “was never inappropriate with anybody” despite a long association with Epstein. Those should be the final words of the sordid saga and give the GOP the confidence to stop runnin’ scared on the subject and drop its foolish obsession with the case....

The government for the first time yesterday said illegal immigrants on Algerian-flagged LNG tankers in Boston ``may have had indirect associations'' with the so-called millennium plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport.

The amount of money Mexico received in remittances fell 16.2% annually in June, the largest year-over-year decline for any month in more than a decade. Analysts partially attributed the sharp decline to fear of going out to work among Mexicans in the United States, where the U.S. government is pursuing an aggressive deportation agenda. The vast majority of remittances to Mexico are sent from the United States, where millions of Mexicans — both documented and undocumented — live and work. The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) reported on Friday that income from remittances totaled US $5.201 billion in June, down from...

Rumors are circulating that the United States may begin to print $500 bills. The US Bureau of Engraving and Printing began printing $500 bills in 1861 until 1945, formally discontinuing them in 1969 when Nixon moved to close the gold window. The US Treasury has since required banks to send all $500 bills back to them to be destroyed, as the government claimed higher-denominated notes paved the way for criminal activity. Collectors know that the US Treasury issued $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and even $100,000 notes once upon a time. The $100,000 bill featured President Woodrow Wilson and was issued as...

Planned Parenthood will close its two clinics in Louisiana on Sept. 30 as the organization faces funding challenges under President Trump’s tax and spending package. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast President Melaney Linton said in a statement the Louisiana closures are a “direct result of relentless political assaults.” “This is not a decision we wanted to make; it is one we were forced into by political warfare. Anti-reproductive health lawmakers obsessed with power and control have spent decades fighting the concept that people deserve to control their own bodies,” she wrote. She added that “extremists” lawmakers have done everything in their...

While the media and medical establishment scramble to cover for each other, the truth keeps leaking out, and as you can imagine, it’s not pretty. This week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) took to X to slam RFK Jr. for saying what a lot of us already knew: pediatricians made money, real, big money, off the COVID vaccine push, especially on kids. The AAP tried to shut the conversation down fast: ... But here’s the thing: they’re lying. And the internet brought the receipts. However, before we get to that, we’d be remiss not to point out how the...

While the world was distracted by the Epstein debacle, legislators introduced the GENUIS Act that would permit the US government to regulate stablecoins. The GENUIS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), primarily sponsored by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), permits the government to oversee, regulate, and define the $250 billion stablecoin market. Now, stablecoins differ from cryptocurrencies as they are pegged to a stable asset such as a fiat currency or commodity. Cryptocurrencies are allegedly allowed to freely operate on the market based on supply and demand. The GENIUS Act will peg stablecoins to the US dollar and...

Baylor University voluntarily rescinded a controversial grant that supported research focused on inclusion and belonging in the church, with a focus on LGBTQIA+ individuals, President Linda Livingstone announced in a statement Wednesday afternoon. According to a now inaccessible press release published on June 30 from the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, the $643,401 grant was awarded to the Center for Church and Community Impact (C3I). The Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation supplied the grant to “better understand the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations to nurture institutional courage and foster change.” The Baugh...

Migrant shelters in the United States are closing their doors in large numbers as the border crisis has waned significantly. In January, two shelters shuttered in Pima County, Arizona, according to the Arizona Daily Star. In San Diego, the Jewish Family Service closed its shelter in February, specifically citing policy changes like the CBP One app going away as part of the reason for its closure. In Texas, the San Antonio-based Migrant Resource Center that opened in 2022 closed in February due to the plunge in people crossing into the United States, according to Texas Public Radio. On the East...

A woman living in a 1,200-square-foot underground bunker says it’s “worth it” to save $1.5k a month on sky-high rent. Caitlin Johnson, 44, snapped up the chance to live in a friend’s underground bunker in their yard in Bakersfield, California, after moving from New York in April 2024. She pays just $500-a-month in rent for the bunker – which has a master bedroom with en-suite, a full kitchen, living room, 18 bunk beds, a separate bathroom, two more toilets and another shower. Caitlin’s friend, moved into the property in 2022 and discovered it had an underground bunker originally built by...

How reliant is your state on Uncle Sam’s wallet? Every year, billions in federal tax dollars are redistributed to the 50 states and the District of Columbia through grants, contracts, and benefit programs. *** Their dependency score blends two metrics: the state’s return‐on‐taxes ratio and the share of state revenues coming from federal sources. Importantly, this data does not include Medicaid payments.Finally, a state’s political affiliation is based on its voting history in the past five presidential elections. New Mexico tops the 2024 list for states most dependent on the federal government, with a perfect score of 100. Its residents...

She might be the She-Wolf of Wall Street. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) raked in between $7.8 and $42.5 million in 2024 — meaning her estimated net worth with venture capitalist hubby Paul Pelosi could now top out at $413 million, new financial disclosures showed. *** The former House Speaker, who’s so infamous for trading Missouri Rep. Josh Hawley named a bill after her, and her husband dumped 5,000 shares of Microsoft stock worth an estimated $2.2 million in July — one of their largest sales in three years — a few short months before the FTC announced an antitrust investigation...

During an interview with Telemundo 47 on Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) argued that the state is going to lose money under the Republican tax and spending bill and people will lose health care and responded to if she’ll have to cut services to some immigrants by saying, “I don’t want to go there.” And “This is something we have to look at very seriously for how we can not leave these people without essential care.” Hochul said that “no state will be able to make up those kind of cuts. We just don’t have enough money. And...

The Treasury Department is phasing out penny production by early next year after President Donald Trump ordered the government to halt the “wasteful” minting of the coins. The Treasury will stop making pennies by early 2026, which will require businesses to start rounding up or down to the nearest five cents, the agency confirmed in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Authorities cracking down on national organized-crime rings swiping $18 billion a year through ATM card-skimming have now turned their sights on aiding Big Apple victims. The US Secret Service, which investigates financial crimes along with protecting the president, started the crackdown in California last year because of the staggering problem and has now expanded to team up with a new NYPD task force to try to thwart the criminals better here. “It’s billions of dollars [stolen] annually across the nation, so that jumps off the page by any metric,” Secret Service spokesman James Byrne told The Post on Wednesday, as...

KEY FACTS: The Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 21 (SB 21) with a 101-42 vote, approving the creation of a state-level strategic Bitcoin reserve. The bill, authored by Senator Charles Schwertner and sponsored by Representative Giovanni Capriglione, allows the Texas comptroller to invest in cryptocurrencies with a market cap exceeding $500 billion, currently limited to Bitcoin. Following New Hampshire and Arizona, Texas would be the third U.S. state to establish such a reserve if Governor Greg Abbott, a known crypto advocate, signs the bill within 20 days.

Now you know why Trump is so eager to cut wasteful spending! The real mystery is why Democrats and RINOs are so determined to continue wasteful spending and not cut taxes. Trump inherited a fiscal disaster from Biden and Congress. Not to mention The Federal Reserve. Credit default swaps (CDS) for the USA are near Greece (and China) levels. ... Since Covid struck in 2020, US debt is up a staggering 56% ... And M2 Money is up 40% since Covid.

In a massive sting operation straight out of a crime thriller, Spanish police have smashed one of Europe’s most powerful underworld banks – a slick, secretive syndicate laundering millions using the ancient and shadowy “hawala” method. Cash, crypto and contraband – the works. In unbelievable scenes, Spain’s National Police, backed by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, swooped on a web of luxury and illegality. The secret January raids – now revealed – saw over 250 officers hit 13 locations across Spain and Belgium in a coordinated blitz, nabbing 17 suspects, seizing mountains of loot and blowing apart a money-moving machine that had...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the City of Turlock are continuing their funding fight over the Turlock-based homeless shelter, We Care. On Friday, Newsom wrote a letter to the city and expressed disappointment with their decision to reject allocating a single dollar. "It is imperative that the City reconsider its priorities and demonstrate the kind of collaborative, accountable, and solution-oriented leadership this crisis demands. Enough. Do your job," wrote Newsom. But Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak said she decided against approving the letter and dollar until the shelter took accountability. "This isn't about $1," Bublak said. "This is about ACCOUNTABILITY, and...

Rahn+Bodmer Enters into Deferred Prosecution Agreement for Criminal Misconduct; Agrees to Pay $22 MillionAudrey Strauss, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Stuart M. Goldberg, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Tax Division, and James C. Lee, Chief of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), announced the filing of a criminal Information against RAHN+BODMER CO. (“R+B”), a financial institution located in Zurich, Switzerland. The Information charges R+B with one count of conspiring to help U.S. accountholders evade their U.S. tax obligations, file false federal tax returns, and otherwise defraud the Internal Revenue Service...