Free Republic

Right now, Warner Bros. is riding high on the success of Wonder Woman, and by all means, they should be. After getting slammed in 2016 for their two entries in the DC Extended Universe, many fans and critics seemed ready to follow suit with Wonder Woman. Luckily for the studio — and luckily for us — the film turned out to be a damn good entry, and the narrative seems to have been shifted to a more hopeful one for this universe.And yet, there does seem to be this feeling that we’re at some sort of stalemate with DC Films....

Sensitive personal details relating to almost 200 million US citizens have been accidentally exposed by a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee. The 1.1 terabytes of data includes birthdates, home addresses, telephone numbers and political views of nearly 62% of the entire US population. The data was available on a publicly accessible Amazon cloud server. Anyone could access the data as long as they had a link to it.

Otto Warmbier, the American student who was detained and held in North Korea before being returned back to the U.S. earlier this month, has died according to his family. He was 22 years old.

WEST HARTFORD, CT - The West Hartford Detective Division is currently investigating threats directed at President Donald Trump posted at a local elementary school. The incident occurred Thursday at the Morley School, according to a release. Police said several areas of the school were damaged with anti-Trump writing and threats directed at the President. A person was caught on surveillance video riding a mountain bike onto the property at the time, police said. Police describe the suspect as a white male in his 30s or 40s who was balding. He was wearing a Boston Red Sox t-shirt and had a...

Sharyl Attkisson: Some people might think this is a great time to be a Republican Chairman of an important committee because Republicans control the House, they’re the majority in the Senate, and they hold the president’s office. That means, you would think, that federal agencies can’t stonewall investigations of spending, waste, fraud, and abuse. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah: The reality is, sadly, I don’t see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration. I thought there would be this, these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon....

Otto Warmbier, the American student who was imprisoned in North Korea for more than 17 months and was returned home to Ohio last week, has died, his family said Monday. "It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home," his family said in part in a statement. "Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20 p.m."

“I’ve known him for 35 years, I grew up with him. It’s 100% him. He lives in Wales, he has four kids and his partner,” the man said. [snip] Earlier Monday morning Osborne was arrested on terrorism and attempted murder charges. Witnesses say that after the attack he shouted, “I’m going to kill all Muslims – I did my bit.”

Lena Dunham took to Twitter on Father’s Day to share a message related to the day’s celebration of dads across the country: “You don’t need a father.” “You don’t need a father – so many families work so many ways- but if you have one he better werk [sic],” Dunham wrote on Sunday morning.

Last week people were reckoning that the new raunchy comedy Rough Night would revolutionize Hollywood. After all the movie, which stars Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell and Zoe Kravitz, is the first R-rated comedy in almost 20 years to be directed by a woman (Lucia Aniello, best known for directing Broad City). So its success counted for a good deal. But that was then. Rough Night has wound up commercially comatose, taking just $8.1 million from over 3,000 movie theaters over the weekend at the U.S. box office. The movie, about a bachelorette party in Miami that spirals out...

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a vocal opposition this week against a Maine bill criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), Mainely Media reports. Republican Rep. Heather Sirocki is sponsoring the bill, saying that it would classify performing FGM as a Class B crime in the state, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The bill would also punish the parent or guardian of the victim. However, the Maine ACLU staunchly opposes the protection.

ACOSTA, PA. — On a warm June morning, a large crowd gathered in the lush, gentle folds of the Allegheny Mountains to hear President Donald Trump live on video. “I’m absolutely thrilled to be speaking with you on this great, great day,” he said. “The miners of Pennsylvania are mining coal again.” On a stage, five men unfurled a gold banner that blared, in large black letters: “Trump Digs Coal,” as the audience went wild. For the first time in nearly a decade, a new coal mine has opened here, and a US president has rallied alongside an industry deemed...

Before a volcano erupts, there are usually signs of what’s to come; small earthquakes, heat emission, and ground swelling, to name a few, have all been observed to precede eruptions. Volcanologists also monitor the changing composition of gas emissions at volcanoes in the months leading up to an eruption. However, precursory variations in gas have not yet been verified to occur in volcanoes hosting active lava lakes. To find out if volcanic gas emissions might also be used to predict eruptions at lava lake–hosting, carbon-poor volcanoes, Aiuppa et al. looked at Chile’s Villarrica volcano. Villarrica towers 2847 meters over the...

Sensitive personal details relating to almost 200 million US citizens have been accidentally exposed by a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee. The 1.1 terabytes of data includes birthdates, home addresses, telephone numbers and political views of nearly 62% of the entire US population. The data was available on a publicly accessible Amazon cloud server. Anyone could access the data as long as they had a link to it.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the bravery and initiative of City police in their quick response to anti-Muslim commentary following recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. “The adherence of Muslims to the tenets of their faith is protected by laws guaranteeing freedom of religion,” he said. “As pointed out by Shaikh Mohammad Tawhidi in Australia earlier this week, it is not a sin for a Muslim to kill a non-believer. It is a sin for a Christian to not turn the other cheek. By the tenets of the two faiths there is no justification for the criticism leveled against...

Thursday evening, CBS's Scott Pelley, who officially ended his tenure as the network's Evening News anchor the following evening, told viewers that "It's time to ask whether the attack on the United States Congress Wednesday was foreseeable, predictable and, to some degree, self-inflicted." It's clear from Pelley's subsequent commentary that his answers to all three elements are "Yes." It's equally clear from the examples he supplied as support that he sees (or wants viewers to see) the problem as predominantly about the conduct of those on the right. Transcript below: It's time to ask whether the attack on the United...

RUSH: Hey, the Supreme Court has handed down a decision that’s gonna have some ramifications. They have ruled for, in favor of an Asian-American rock band that calls themselves The Slants. Snerdley, you’re a big music guy. Have you ever heard of The Slants, Asian-American rock band called The Slants? I never have. You have heard of them? You like their music? Ohhh, but you’ve not heard their music, you never heard of ’em ’til the story hit? All right. Well, get this. In a win for Asian-American rock band The Slants — and this has got possible ramifications, good...

The United States and Iran have flexed their military muscles in unprecedented ways in Syria to deter attacks on their allies and interests, with Russia warning Washington on Monday it would treat any U.S.-led coalition planes in its area of operations as potential targets after the U.S. military downed a Syrian jet. Tensions escalated on Sunday as the U.S. military brought down the jet near Raqqa for bombing near U.S.-allied forces on the ground, and Iran launched missiles at Islamic State targets in eastern Syria - the first time each state has carried out such actions in the multi-sided Syrian...

Washington (AFP) - The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that senior officials from president George W. Bush's administration cannot be held responsible for abuses against Muslim immigrants and others held in the frantic response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The 4-2 decision marked a victory for ex-attorney general John Ashcroft and former FBI director Robert Mueller, who have claimed along with other Bush era officials that they have immunity from prosecution. With the court's ruling -- which saw two justices recuse themselves and another skip the vote -- Ashcroft and Mueller also avoided being held personally liable. The court...

Chaffetz is checked out. With less than two weeks left before his early exit from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) trashed President Trump and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a no-holds-barred interview. Chaffetz — an ardent Obama critic who withdrew his Trump endorsement weeks before the 2016 election — said he thinks the new administration is already doing a worse job with transparency and helping congressional investigations. “The reality is, sadly, I don't see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration,” Chaffetz told the Sinclair Broadcast Group on Sunday. “I thought there would be this, these...

Friday, I had a great interview with Greg Pruett, the founder and President of the Idaho Second Amendment Alliance. The ISAA has been successful in getting anti-gun legislators voted out of office, getting city and county gun bans overturned (Idaho has a state pre-emption law, but when did a pesky little thing like the law ever stop penny-ante tyrants?), and in making Idaho the ninth state in the nation to pass a Constitutional carry law. Really, if you don’t know what Constitutional carry is, Google it. Better yet, get a copy of the Constitution and read it.