Free Republic

Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York City, notified the 45th president's defense attorney and a Manhattan prosecutor that there's been another twist — a potentially significant one — following the May 30 verdict finding Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records. In a letter dated June 7, Judge Merchan writes to Trump attorney Todd Blanche and ADA Joshua Steinglass (emphasis added):Dear Counsel:Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System's public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention. In...

Will injustice delayed become injustice denied? Fani Willis and Donald Trump will eventually find out. This week, the appellate court in Georgia agreed to hear the defense objection to the ruling that denied their disqualification motion against Willis. Notably, the court later also froze all action in the case, where Judge Scott McAfee still had significant pre-trial motions to weigh:On Tuesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals scheduled its hearing to weigh an effort from Trump and seven other co-defendants' to disqualify Willis from trying her case against the former president over his alleged attempts to overturn the Peach State's 2020...

Questions have been raised about the reliability of the casualty numbers coming from the Gaza Ministry of Health since last year. Some who've taken a closer look have argued that the figures don't add up. Last month even the United Nations appeared to adjust its figures when it stopped relying on those put out by a Hamas controlled PR office.At this point, about a third of the people these groups have identified as war deaths lack either a name or an identification number. And if you look at the 2/3 of the figures that are considered confirmed, you find that...

Yay! More jobs! Boo! No interest cut!In any event, that's the headline based on the numbers that came in this morning.The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in May, countering fears of a slowdown in the labor market and likely reducing the Federal Reserve’s impetus to lower interest rates.Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 272,000 for the month, up from 165,000 in April and well ahead of the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 190,000, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.And, not breaking the trend, there were downward revisions yet again to previous months' job numbers....Previous months’ reports...

RedState has written about former President Donald Trump's sudden fundraising success, which has taken off following his conviction in the Manhattan trial. On Thursday, an MSNBC panel speculated about it, talking in part about it happening in Silicon Valley. Former President Trump is kicking off a series of West Coast fundraising stops after his hush money trial.@VaughnHillyard, @dee_bosa and @BasilSmiklePhD discuss the Trump and Biden campaigns as the road to November heats up. pic.twitter.com/i3I18CnpYW— MSNBC Reports (@MSNBC_reports) June 6, 2024See Related: Silicon Valley Tech Mogul Responds to Trump Verdict With Whopping $300K Donation Trump Post-Conviction Fundraising Shattering RecordsThe panel pointed...

Over the past two weeks, one of the biggest culture war conversations in America has had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump, Joe Biden or the 2024 elections. Instead, it’s centered on, of all things, the WNBA. The discourse around Caitlin Clark, the Iowa phenom who won rookie of the month in May, has run the gamut of everything wrong with how we argue today — injecting racism, sexism, talk of “pretty privilege” and allegations of “assault” for hard fouls. Most non-sports commentators writing and discussing Clark’s controversial entry into the pros have never had an opinion about basketball...

The gun trial for Hunter Biden will likely wrap up early next week as the prosecution rested its case on Friday. The defense expects to call about two to three witnesses, including an employee of the gun store at which Hunter purchased a firearm while allegedly being an active drug abuser, Hunter’s uncle James Biden and Hunter’s daughter Naomi Biden. Naomi took the stand Friday afternoon and testified that her father seemed “hopeful” in October 2018, the month he purchased the gun, and that she did not personally observe any drug paraphernalia or other signs of abuse in her father’s...

Syrian President Bashar Assad has reason to distance himself from his erstwhile ally Iran. It’s true that Iran helped stabilize the government in Damascus and was instrumental in putting down a rebel uprising, but its continued presence on Syrian territory is a threat to Assad – not least because it invites occasional strikes from Israel. Assad sees Israeli pressure as an opportunity to get rid of Iran for good, and to that end he has signaled an interest in meeting with the United States, which sees ousting Iran as a necessary step in rehabilitating the Syrian regime. Given the escalation...

Texas is a major business hub and is a leading contributor to the US economy. Nate Hovee/Pexels.comA new stock exchange in Dallas, Texas, is set to begin securities trading next year, with plans to start listing companies by 2026. The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) Group has secured $120 million in funding from over two dozen investors, including Larry Fink's Blackrock and Kenneth Griffin's Citadel, making it "the most well-capitalised exchange entrant to file a registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)."Addressing Market Concerns and Business-Friendly EnvironmentThe fully electronic TXSE will list various securities, including exchange-traded products and...

California has the highest income tax rate in the country (top tier of 14.4 percent). It has the highest statewide sales tax rate (7.25 percent, plus local sales taxes). It has the highest gas tax rate ($0.78 per gallon). Yet, it ranks third to last in the country in terms of road quality.The old joke is that California would tax the air we breathe if it could. Well, California’s latest tax proposal comes close. The state is recruiting drivers for a pilot program to track and tax the miles they drive.The plan is borne from the fact that Californians have...

President Joe Biden's pier for terrorists in the Gaza Strip is back up and running after breaking apart, drifting north to Israel, sinking and getting stuck on the beach. Biden announced the "humanitarian" pier during his State of the Union address in February. "At approximately 2:15 p.m. (local Gaza time) on June 7, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) successfully reestablished the temporary pier in Gaza, enabling the continued delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. In coming days, CENTCOM will facilitate the movement of vital food and other emergency supplies, in support of the U.S. Agency for International...

Mortgage rates dipped just under 7% this week after crossing above that threshold in the prior reading as rates remain stubbornly high, stifling the housing market. Freddie Mac's latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey, released Thursday, showed that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage ticked down to 6.99% this week from 7.03% last week. The average rate on a 30-year loan was 6.71% a year ago. The average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage also decreased to 6.29% from 6.36% last week. One year ago, the rate on the 15-year fixed note averaged 6.07%.

Costco will no longer offer books for sale year-round and will instead stock them only for the holiday shopping period and during special promotions, according to a report — a surprise move that poses yet another threat to the publishing industry.Several publishing executives who were informed of the retailer’s plans told The New York Times that Costco will cease offering books for sale on a consistent basis starting in January.The decision was met with criticism on Reddit, where users vented that the decision was akin to “cancelling the hot dog in the food court” — a reference to Costco’s beloved...

XAI has its sights set on creating the world’s largest supercomputer and, according to a recent announcement, the Elon Musk-founded artificial intelligence company has selected Memphis for its site. The Greater Memphis Chamber revealed the southwestern Tennessee city had landed the planned project on Wednesday, saying it will be the "largest capital investment by a new-to-market company in Memphis history." The supercomputer will be called the "Gigafactory of Compute," the group said. Musk said it's "true" in a reply to an X post that contained footage of the Greater Memphis Chamber’s press conference announcing plans for Memphis to get the...

It’s been amusing to see Democrats realizing that their lawfare strategy against Trump hasn’t been working. First, the indictments only boosted Trump’s position in GOP primary polling, and then the New York trial didn’t even hurt him. Various polls since last week's verdict have shown little to no shift towards Joe Biden, and some even suggest a boost for Donald Trump. So far, there’s little reason to believe that the verdict will be a watershed event that will help Biden retake the lead in the election. And Biden just got some more devastating news. A new poll of Virginia shows...

Merrick Garland recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee, and among other things, was “battered” over his decision to keep the recorded interview tapes between Joe Biden and special counsel Robert Hur hidden from the public.Garland has the audacity to say that no one is above the law, and his Justice department never considers politics in its decisions, but those statements are demonstrably not true. Here are a couple simple questions for Garland that show that statement is a lie:Did Biden commit felonies when he illegally took and mishandled classified documents for fifty years? Yes.Did the Justice department let him...

We woke up today to a rather fascinating story. Dallas may have a new resident soon and I don't mean the NFL Chiefs coming back to their original location. This is the story:Capital giants BlackRock and Citadel are among the headline investors in a group that is seeking to bring a new national stock exchange to the Lone Star State. James H Lee, Chairman and CEO of Texas Stock Exchange, says the group leading the project has already raised $120 million. “With the demand we are seeing from investors and corporations for expanded alternatives to trade and list equities, this...

Former President Donald Trump’s conviction just might have been the missing key in his securing the 2024 election against President Joe Biden. According to a new Quinnipiac University Georgia poll, Trump holds an advantage over Biden (49 - 44 percent) in a head-to-head matchup in the crucial battleground state. Despite the unprecedented move, the conviction against Trump seems to working in his favor— a stark contrast from what the Democratic Party was hoping for when bringing politically motivated charges against him. The survey also revealed that in a six-way hypothetical race that includes other candidates, Trump still leads with 43...

Today I received messages from two separate friends that said essentially the same thing: “Kaeley, check out this post from my Christian relative. He’s using his ministry platform to endorse LGBTQ ideology, and he’s saying God approves of it. How can he read the Bible and come to these conclusions? How can he justify leading people astray this way?” And of course, the short answer is that he can’t. Christianity is completely and utterly incompatible with this ideology, which basically says, “God, I don’t care what you say is best for me or what rules you’ve issued to assure my...

There is something of a subculture on YouTube of armchair analysts and commentators, WDW Pro, Valliant Renegade, and ClownfishTV, to name just three (beyond traditional financial websites like CNBC and Seeking Alpha), who track every cultural, corporate, programming, and financial move of The Walt Disney Company, previously one of America’s most iconic and trusted companies. Note: I used the past tense in describing The Walt Disney Company. It is no longer one of America’s most trusted brands, and it’s about to lose its iconic status.How did this happen?On May 7, 2024, in the wake of its successful battle to keep...