Free Republic

Opinion: A commander-in-chief at odds with the best traditions of military service

Sen. Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, disclosed during an emotional Senate hearing on Wednesday she was "preyed upon and then raped" in the Air Force by a superior officer. The Arizona Republican, who served 26 years in the Air Force, made the disclosure during a Senate hearing on sexual assault allegations in the military. McSally said she didn't report the assault because she didn't trust the system, and was ashamed and confused. “My drive to fight against sexual assault in the ranks is not from the outside looking in," McSally began. "And it is...

Cardinal Burke opened this Twitter account back in January, but just started to post to it yesterday. According to Edward Pentin, Twitter isn't currently issuing blue check marks so I wouldn't worry about it having been verified. The original source is Cardinal Burke's communications director for the Guadalupe Shrine, Elizabeth Westhoff's tweet (https://twitter.com/ESWesthoff), retweeted by Edward Pentin. You don't need a twitter account yourself in order to read it. The link to it is:  https://twitter.com/cardinalrlburke

Vatican theologian: ‘Clericalism’ is ‘smokescreen’ hiding homosexuality as abuse crisis’ real cause March 6, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) –  Homosexuality, not clericalism, is at the root of the abuse crisis the Catholic Church is facing, and especially the “Obama-era” style of thought that adult homosexual relations are not sinful: this is the gist of an interview given by a prominent Vatican theologian, Monsignor Nicola Bux, to the Italian daily La Verità. The lively exchange between journalist Alessandro Rico and Don Nicola Bux was published in La Verità's February 25 edition. Monsignor Bux is a consultor to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and a...

It’s really not hard to get to the bottom of this: When you say that Jews have magical hypnotic powers to control other people, you’re an anti-Semite. When you say Jews control other people through money, you’re an anti-Semite. When you say Jews have conspired to force you to apologize for saying anti-Semitic things, you’re an anti-Semite. ­Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite. Now what? Well, now nothing. For a while this week there was a thought that the House of Representatives, where Omar serves as a freshman from Minnesota, might vote on a resolution condemning her ­anti-Semitism.

Democratic Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) defended his colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) by reasoning that she is higher than Jews on the pyramid of intersectionality. In an interview with The Hill on Wednesday, Clyburn trivialized Holocaust survivors when he implied that Omar’s time in a Kenyan refugee camp outweighed the experiences of Jews. Her experience, Clyburn argued, is much more empirical — and powerful — than that of people who are generations removed from the Holocaust, Japanese internment camps during World War II and the other violent episodes that have marked history. “I’m serious about that. There are people...

VIDEO The DUmmies are determined to ensure the re-election of President Trump by a landslide by continuing to alienate even more of the electorate. In this case they are making that attempt by mocking Ash Wednesday. And while mocking "The Deplorables" for being narrow-minded cultists, they continue their deep faith in goddess Gaia and Astrology as we shall see.

SAN FRANCISCO – Kamala Harris was this city’s top prosecutor, running to become California’s elected attorney general, when a scandal stunned her office and threatened to upend her campaign. One of Harris’ top deputies had emailed a colleague that a crime-lab technician had become “increasingly UNDEPENDABLE for testimony.” Weeks later, the technician allegedly took home cocaine from the lab, possibly tainting evidence and raising concerns about hundreds of cases.

Full Headline: Awkward: Shannon Watts Assumes Pearl Wearing Legislators Targeted Her Group But One Tweet Proves That Theory Wrong Republican members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives have sparked social media outrage after wearing pearls during a hearing on Extreme Risk Protection Orders, commonly referred to as "red flag laws." Many state legislatures are considering implementing these laws, which would make it easier for police to confiscate a person's guns if he or she is believed to be a threat to themselves or others. According to the Washington Post, the legislators' motives were easy to see. "The implication was...

Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said Thursday that he will not run for president in 2020, a decision that comes after months of preparations for the Democratic primaries and just days after he appeared to be leaning toward a launch later this month. Brown, who revealed his plans in a conference call with home-state reporters, said he could be more effective in the Senate, where he just won a third term.

Van Jones – CNN Political Commentator, Social Justice Activist, Author, Former Obama Administration Official Date: Tuesday, April 23, 8:00 PM Location: Mountain View, California Center for the Performing Arts Tickets: $40 General Admission; $20 Students Van Jones began his career as an activist in the Bay Area pushing for criminal justice reform. He then moved to focus more on the environment, promoting green jobs as a solution for including disenfranchised communities in the economy while addressing environmental problems. His work in the area, through the nonprofit organization he founded Green for All and his book "The Green Collar Economy," earned...

Bishop of Mantua, Italy Removes Faithful Priest Fr. Angelo Bisi: 'I'm not fighting to keep my place as a parish priest; I'm fighting for Christian values' A bishop in northern Italy has removed a priest who opposed relaxing restrictions on Holy Communion to the divorced and civilly remarried. The diocese of Mantua, which recently implemented a pastoral ministry offering the possibility of admission to the sacraments for those in adulterous unions, removed the priest from his parish duties allegedly because of his outspoken defense of Church teaching. Father Angelo Bisi, in charge of the parishes of Motteggiana-Villa Saviola, was removed from Villa Saviola after...

Trump’s order effectively canceled a policy, signed by President Barack Obama in July 2016, requiring U.S. officials to release “an unclassified summary of the number of strikes undertaken by the United States government outside areas of active hostilities,” as well as a related civilian casualty report by May 1 each year. “This is a shameful decision that will shroud this administration’s actions in even more secrecy with little accountability for its victims," Daphne Eviatar, Amnesty International USA's director of security with human rights, said in a statement. “The public deserves to know how many civilians are killed by U.S. actions....

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bought stock in initial public offerings (IPOs) that earned hefty returns while she had access to insider information that would have been illegal for an average citizen to trade with – even though it’s perfectly legal for elected officials, CBS’s "60 Minutes" reported Sunday night. In a piece relying on data collected from the conservative Hoover Institution, "60 Minutes" revealed that elected officials like Pelosi are exempt from insider trading laws – regulations that carry hefty prison sentences and fines for any other citizen who trades stocks with private information on companies that can affect...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was hit Thursday with an ethics complaint for listing her live-in boyfriend as a staff member and getting him an official House email address. The liberal superstar violated at least two provisions of the House Code of Official Conduct and possibly U.S. criminal law by making false statements about boyfriend Riley Roberts being a staff member, according to the complaint by the conservative Coolidge Reagan Foundation. “AOC has gotten away with utter hypocrisy for far too long. The Coolidge Reagan Foundation will do whatever it takes to expose AOC’s transgressions and hold her accountable,” said Shaun McCutcheon,...

Fifty years ago, the United States was facing crises and unrest on multiple fronts. Some predicted that internal chaos and revolution would unravel the nation. The 1969 Vietnam War protests on the UC Berkeley campus turned so violent that National Guard helicopters indiscriminately sprayed tear gas on student demonstrators. Later that year, hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of major cities as part of the "Moratorium to the End the War in Vietnam." In Washington, D.C., about a half-million protesters marched to the White House. Native American demonstrators took over the former federal prison on Alcatraz Island in...

Key Points Normally you can’t take a tax break for your pet but, under select circumstances, you might be able to. The IRS once allowed an exotic dancer to deduct the cost of breast implants. Is your pet a social media influencer? You just might be considered a small business. ============================================================== You probably know by now that charitable deductions are tax-deductible. But how about the cost of caring for your pet? Or your kid’s clarinet lessons? In select cases, the IRS has permitted taxpayers to deduct off-beat expenses on their tax returns. Here’s the key: Those costs must meet certain...

At least James Clyburn gave Ilhan Omar some agency. Nancy Pelosi, who’s pushing an “All Hate Matters” strategy to protect her frosh caucus member, contradicts Clyburn’s “hierarchy of hurt” defense that Allahpundit rightly skewered in the previous post. Pelosi tried explaining it away as unintentional ignorance rather than repeated and malicious attacks on Jews who don’t agree with Omar:

It’s an odd juxtaposition that in 2019 the self-professed “party of science” is pushing all their chips into the center of the table against the concept of biology. Democrats have rejected not only biology, but all of human history and their own eyes to embrace the idea that what constitutes a “man” or a “woman” is now open to interpretation. To think otherwise, to believe your lying eyes, is now on its way to being a hate crime. Were this just a passing fad you could maybe laugh it off. But this delusion is being codified in law in states across...

Do you ever get the feeling that news stories come and go faster than they used to? Ask anyone in the news business. It's real. The O.J. Simpson story lasted about a year. Now, it feels like there is an O.J. a week. Maybe it's the effect of staring at screens all day, jumping from snippet to snippet. Our brains have been rewired to think only in the present tense. Or maybe there is a lot more news than there used to be. Some world historic crisis hits every four days, knocking the last world historic crisis from our collective...