Free Republic

After two days of budget hearings on Fresno Mayor Lee Brand’s proposals for fiscal year 2020, now the Fresno City Council has its turn to pitch funding proposals. The proposal, floated by Council member Miguel Arias, would fund $75,000 for “the administrative element” of a local version of the Advance Peace initiative.

On Thursday, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore made his expected candidacy for the 2020 U.S. Senate Republican nomination official with an announcement in Montgomery. Reactions to Moore’s candidacy have been plentiful, and on the Thursday broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Mark Levin, author of “Unfreedom of the Press,” offered his response with an endorsement for State Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Indian Springs). Levin called Mooney “the most conservative individual” in a field that includes Moore, Mooney, former Auburn head football head coach Tommy Tuberville and U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope). “I want to make...

Jackson Cosko, who calls himself a “Democratic Political Professional” with cybersecurity expertise, is accused of multiple crimes for allegedly doxxing Republican Senators during the Brett Kavanaugh/Christine Blasey Ford hearings. Jackson Cosko has now been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the matter. The United States Capitol Police arrested Cosko, saying he allegedly “posted private, identifying information (doxing) about one or more United States Senators to the internet,” a statement said. On October 9, 2018, a judge said Cosko should continue to be held without bond. According to Legistorm, he worked for U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan...

It’s open borders or Nazis, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained Tuesday, as she placed full blame for the mess at the southern US border on “fascist” President Trump. In a Q&A posted on Instagram, AOC charged Team Trump with holding illegal border-crossers in “concentration camps.” Leaving no doubt that she was invoking the Nazi death camps, she noted that she was addressing people “concerned enough with humanity to say that . . . ‘Never Again’ means something.”She left unmentioned that some of those holding areas went up under President Barack Obama, because the unprecedented wave of “undocumenteds” from Central America started hitting on...

Zheng Qiaozhi — we will call him George — still has nightmares. He was interning at China’s Shenyang Army General Hospital when he was drafted to be part of an organ-harvesting team. The prisoner was brought in, tied hand and foot, but very much alive. The army doctor in charge sliced him open from chest to belly button and exposed his two kidneys. “Cut the veins and arteries,” he told his shocked intern. George did as he was told. Blood spurted everywhere. The kidneys were placed in an organ-transplant container. Then the doctor ordered George to remove the man’s eyeballs....

10-year-old girl becomes youngest person to climb El CapitanVideo 10-year-old girl becomes youngest person to climb El Capitan Selah Schneiter talks about reaching the summit of the famous Yosemite rock face. The 10-year-old girl who just became the youngest person to conquer one of the world’s most challenging mountain climbs said Thursday, “I did it to have fun.” Selah Schneiter of Colorado appeared on “Shepard Smith Reporting” on Thursday to talk about her climb on the “Nose Route” of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. She made the bold ascent over five days in early June. 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL BECOMES YOUNGEST...

A woman named Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck earned her Ph.D. from Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin with the help of her dissertation, titled: "Black names in white classrooms: Teacher behaviors and student perceptions." Vandyck, who was born Marijuana Pepsi Jackson 46 years ago, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview published Wednesday that she was inspired to choose her dissertation topic on unique black names after living through her own fair share of experiences with her name. "People make such a big deal out of it, I couldn't get away from it," she told the paper. Vandyck, who earned her...

Washington (AFP) - Iran said Thursday it had recovered parts of a US spy drone in its territorial waters, after downing the aircraft in a missile strike slammed by President Donald Trump as a "big mistake." Under pressure to respond to the high-stakes incident in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where a series of tanker attacks have sent tensions soaring with Iran, Trump initially struck a combative tone. "Iran made a very big mistake!" he tweeted in response to news Iran had shot down the Global Hawk surveillance aircraft -- which the Pentagon says was above international waters at the...

Salem, Ore. - Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday authorized Oregon State Police to round up GOP senators who have staged a walkout in protest of the cap-and-trade energy conservation bill. "The Senate Republicans have decided to abandon their duty to serve their constituents and walk out," Brown said in a statement.

Hope Hicks' Transcript

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.( 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12) Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in...

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday that the state's employers added 2,600 jobs in May, pushing the total to 4.59 million jobs. That number is up more than 69,000 from the same time last year. Georgia had four job sectors that added more than 10,000 jobs over the past year: Education/health services, 17,700 Professional/business services, 16,400 Leisure/hospitality, 13,400 Construction, 11,100. "We are continuing to see Georgia grow jobs and overall we're still seeing fewer layoffs year over year," Butler said in a statement. "I think it's been a pretty impressive pace of job creation over the last several years,...

~Favorite Lady or Man Songs~ 1978 Little River Band - Lady *Video* Hall and Oates -- Rich Girl *Video*

[Catholic Caucus] Why Amazon Synod working doc’s notion of ‘inculturation’ is a false approach June 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – In recent decades, there has been a great and deep confusion about the concept of inculturation. We can see this confusion rising again to the surface with the newly-released Instrumentum laboris or working document of the upcoming Amazon Synod (see here for an unofficial English translation).  Inculturation has been taken to mean that the Catholic faith and its practice should be changed to conform to an indigenous culture, and should assimilate that culture’s own religious beliefs and practices. In other words,...

NN)The suicide rate in the United States continues to climb, with a rate in 2017 that was 33% higher than in 1999, new research finds. Suicide rates among people 15 to 64 increased significantly during that period, rising from 10.5 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 14 per 100,000 in 2017, the most recent year with available data, according to annual research published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics on Thursday.

Amid mounting tension between the U.S. and Iran, the White House earlier Thursday invited House and Senate leaders and Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees to meet with President Trump in the White House's secure Situation Room. Others who arrived for the meeting included CIA Director Gina Haspel, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Army Secretary Mark Esper, whom Trump has said he'll nominate as defense secretary. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News that "we...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled on Thursday that he and his allies will actively work to oppose Roy Moore's bid for Alabama's Senate seat after the conservative firebrand announced he was jumping into the race. "We'll be opposing Roy Moore vigorously," McConnell told reporters after returning to the Capitol after a White House briefing on Iran. McConnell's comments come after he warned, during an interview with the Associated Press shortly before Moore announced his bid, that he would "oppose him in every way." Moore announced on Thursday afternoon that he would launch a bid for Alabama's Senate seat...

Testimony released Thursday by the panel showed former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks told the House Judiciary Committee that she “lived” special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Asked by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) whether she read Mueller's report, Hicks responded that she had not. “No, sir. I lived the Mueller report,” she said. Hicks told Cicilline she could not recall any instances of President Trump asking anyone else to lie during the campaign or during the transition. Hicks declined to answer as to whether she had ever witnessed Trump asking anyone to lie during her time at the White House,...

The action claims the church engaged in human trafficking, child abuse, forced labor, exploitative commercial practices and intimidation campaigns aimed at anyone who spoke out against the church or its leader. A group of lawyers representing a former member of the Church of Scientology who worked directly with its leader David Miscavige has filed a lawsuit alleging the organization is responsible for decades of human trafficking and intimidation, among other abuses. More at Tony Ortega's blog: Church of Scientology and David Miscavige sued for abuse by major legal players "Attorneys representing Jane Doe filed the first of multiple lawsuits to...

Katie W. Russell, the pediatric surgeon who treated 17-year-old Austin, compared his injuries to those seen in “high-speed motor vehicle crashes.” Her colleague, pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon Jonathan Skirko, says it looked “kind of like a close-range gunshot wound.” Burton and her maimed son first headed to the local hospital in their hometown of Ely, Nevada, but were turned away for lack of resources. Doctors said they’d have to drive 200 miles to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. They filled the teen’s mouth with gauze and gave him a “vomit bag,” says Burton, noting he didn’t...