Free Republic

Ultimately, they want to take down red America – duh. This thread from Nate Hochman is very long, very disturbing, and a total must-read. Yeah, we know, the words ‘MUST-READ-thread’ can sound sorta clickbaity but this time around, it’s just us being honest. It’s easy to take a red state for granted because in a red state you can typically make some general assumptions, especially a red state like South Dakota. Except folks, that’s not always the case. Grab a snack, get comfy, and take a gander at this: A powerful, well-funded coalition is working to bring the transgender movement...

The prisoner/hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas has inadvertently highlighted a harsh reality in the overall conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It’s an issue that is one of the biggest obstacles to achieving a peaceful solution between the two parties.After some of the Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel, footage and images circulated on social media showing these individuals immediately celebrating Hamas, waving the terrorist group’s flags and even wearing its insignia.The arrangement resulted in Israel releasing 150 convicted terrorists, while Hamas released 50 hostages. The scenes broadcast on social media, which include images of women and minor children,...

The founder of FTX used executives as cut-outs for donations, prosecutors allege... That Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that recently filed for bankruptcy, was aggressively using campaign donations as part of a campaign to woo Washington toward his vision of cryptocurrency regulation was no secret — nor was it a secret that other FTX executives quickly became some of the country’s biggest political donors to both Republicans and Democrats, especially those who work on financial regulation. But a new federal criminal indictment alleges that things may have been even simpler than they...

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie ripped President Biden on his prisoner exchange deal with Iran, arguing “you cannot give $6 billion to a terrorist state.” “I wouldn’t have made this deal,” Christie said Monday in an interview on CNN’s “The Source” with Kaitlan Collins. “As much as I would’ve liked those Americans to be home, you cannot give $6 billion to a terrorist state. In exchange for the release of five wrongfully detained American prisoners, the White House’s agreement granted clemency to five Iranians and issued a blanket waiver for international banks to allow the transfer of $6 billion of...

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has been operating in the Loop since 1898, just 27 years after the Great Chicago Fire. The exchange was part of the city’s rebirth and helped establish Chicago as a financial hub. Now, we see the opposite of rebirth with Chicago’s population shrinking. And the $66 billion CME may not be around to help with future renewal: The company has rewritten the terms of its lease so it can leave the city if politicians pursue “ill-conceived” public policy. “We’re in a very strong position,” CME CEO Terry Duffy said in a recent interview. “If we...

The “crypto winter” that hit earlier this year walloped digital asset prices and served as a healthy reminder that cryptocurrencies are highly risky, volatile investments. But now, in the wake of crypto exchange FTX’s implosion, crypto investors were reminded of another risk they face: Crypto accounts lack guaranteed protections when the exchange or platform provider goes belly up. Traditional savings and investment accounts can never be 100% safe in the event an institution becomes insolvent, either. But most banks and brokerages, as well as 401(k) plans, do provide federally guaranteed protections and other insurance. Crypto custodial accounts, however, do not...

On Saturday, Venezuela freed seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicholas Maduro’s wife. The two Venezuelans were jailed in the U.S on drug smuggling charges. Franqui Flores and Efrain Campo, nephews of Cilia Flores, were granted clemency by Joe Biden to facilitate the exchange.

Tomorrow Sunday August 15, 1971 is the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon closing the Gold Exchange Window that allowed foreign holders of US Dollars to exchange their US Dollars for gold priced at $35/ounce......an agreement that had been in place since the end of WW II.... When this decision was announced it's hard to imagine the impact after 50 years...think of Bill Clinton getting NAFTA passed, repealing the Glass/Stegall Act, think of GWB invading Iraq and Afghanistan, etc....actions by President's have monumental impact over time, when at the time it seemed to be insignificant... Not advocating one position over the...

President Vladimir Putin said Russia would be ready to hand over cyber criminals to the United States if Washington did the same for Moscow, Reuters reported. Putin made the comments in an interview ahead of a June 16 summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva. Ties between the powers are badly strained over an array of issues. The Russian leader said he expected the Geneva meeting to help establish bilateral dialogue and revive personal contacts, adding that important issues for the two men included strategic stability, Libya and Syria, and the environment. Putin also praised Biden for having shown...

The White House is closely tracking an emergency patch Microsoft Corp has released, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, after an unknown hacking group recently broke into organizations using a flaw in the company’s mail server software.

DALLAS – Officials from Nasdaq and other major stock exchanges will meet with Gov. Greg Abbott on Nov. 20 in Austin to discuss a possible move from New Jersey to Texas, nbcdfw.com and the Dallas Morning News reported. The meeting comes on the heels of the exchanges threatening to move their trading platforms out of New Jersey, the report said. Abbott and other Texas officials plan to boast the state’s business-friendly environment during the meeting. “Texas continues to be the premier economic destination in the country, attracting more leading businesses than any other state,” spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a...

 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURYSUBJECT:       Delegation of Functions Under 31 U.S.C. 5302By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:Section 1.  Delegation of Authority over the Exchange Stabilization Fund.  (a)  I hereby delegate the functions and authorities conferred upon the President by section 5302 of title 31, United States Code, to the Secretary of the Treasury for use of the Exchange Stabilization Fund in an aggregate amount of up to $50 billion.(b)...

Easily swapped hashed passwords gives Domain Admin rights via API call. Fix may land next month Microsoft Exchange appears to be currently vulnerable to a privilege escalation attack that allows any user with a mailbox to become a Domain Admin.On Thursday, Dirk-jan Mollema, a security researcher with Fox-IT in the Netherlands, published proof-of-concept code and an explanation of the attack, which involves the interplay of three separate issues.According to Mollema, the primary problem is that Exchange has high privileges by default in the Active Directory domain."The Exchange Windows Permissions group has WriteDacl access on the Domain object in Active Directory,...

What happens next may look like Greece during its financial collapse – meaning Turkey’s economy could shrink by 10%-20% The Turkish central bank managed to halt the free-fall of the country’s currency last week with a sharp rise in interest rates. But the move failed to stop the free-fall of Turkey’s equity market and – far more dangerous – the collapse of the credit quality of Turkey’s banks. Only last October, the euro-denominated 10-year bond of Turkey’s largest private lender, Garanti Bank, yielded just 3%. Now it yields more than 7%, and the dollar value of the bond has fallen...

South Korea's defense authorities said Thursday there has been no indication of an imminent missile test by North Korea, responding to U.S. news reports that the secretive nation appears to be preparing to fire another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). "There is no activity that would lead to an assessment that a missile provocation by North Korea is imminent," Army Col. Roh Jae-cheon, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press briefing. He pointed out, however, that it's possible for the North to press ahead with a missile provocation anytime, adding South Korea and the United States are...

North Korea suggested Wednesday it may be open to giving up its nuclear weapons, but only if the U.S. did so first. Ruling Korean Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun published a commentary Wednesday in which the country's authoritarian leadership challenged President Donald Trump to reverse his support for a bigger, stronger U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal and adopt a non-proliferation policy. North Korea has argued its weapons of mass destruction stockpile was necessary only to prevent the U.S. from overthrowing the government of Kim Jong Un, which the U.S. has threatened to do by force if he did not abandon his...

Health insurance giant Aetna said Wednesday that it will not be participating in any Obamacare exchanges in 2018. "Our individual commercial products lost nearly $700 million between 2014 and 2016, and are projected to lose more than $200 million in 2017 despite a significant reduction in membership," T.J. Crawford, Aetna spokesman, said in an email. The reason for the losses, he said, came from structural issues within the exchanges "that have led to co-op failures and carrier exits, and subsequent risk pool deterioration." He did not cite uncertainty over the future of Obamacare, as the company had done when it...

At age 17 our author – a left-liberal, big-city Berlin girl – wants to go to New York, and lands up in Minnesota amongst nothing but Trump fans. What now?

You "ARE" My Spearhead,staff and Sword You are my Jobs that stand in adversity, My Samuels that go and declare for me, My Ezekiels that speak life to dead bones, My mighty men that fearlessly face the enemy alone, My Daniels that pray until My angels come with breakthrough, My Johns of the wilderness speaking My testimony each day anew, My Matthews, Lukes and Timothys, Bringing words of hope and eternal life setting wellsprings free, My pauls with lifes turned over to me, Never looking back as Lot's wife but instead into what My spirit sees, For you are constructed...

The lone health insurance cooperative to make money last year on the Affordable Care Act's public insurance exchanges is now losing millions and suspending individual enrollment for 2016. Maine's Community Health Options lost more than $17 million in the first nine months of this year, after making $10.9 million in the same period last year. A spokesman said higher-than-expected medical costs have hurt the cooperative.