Free Republic

Two prestigious Catholic universities will offer programs for the first time in Belgium to help train imams who serve as prayer leaders and preachers in mosques. Announced at the end of 2019, the programs of study grew out of the work of an official commission “launched after Islamist attacks in Brussels in 2016,” reported weekly newspaper The Tablet. The aim is to provide university-level education for prospective imams. In Belgium, certain ministers of religion are paid by the government. Following the new programs supported by two Catholic universities, this also will be possible for imams, as the courses will be...

At an event at Georgetown University’s law school, moderator and federal appellate judge Margaret McKeown asked Ginsburg about an ongoing effort to revive the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which provides that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Three-fourths of the states, or 38 total, are required to amend the Constitution. Last month, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA and one of only three states to do so since 1977 — but there’s a catch. Congress imposed a 1982 deadline...

Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg justified Russia’s invasion of Crimea, according to his own recently-surfaced 2015 remarks. Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin highlighted Bloomberg’s comments from an appearance at the Aspen Institute with moderator Jennifer Bradley. Bloomberg began by comparing Russia’s move to annex Crimea to the United States annexing California from Mexico in 1848. “What would America do if we had a continuous country and a lot of people in that country wanted to be Americans. Does California ring a bell? We just went and took it.”

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 382 pages of documents showing former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s communications with former Obama officials, including Eric Holder and information sharing with the media in the days immediately surrounding the inception of the Mueller investigation. These documents were obtained in response to a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Justice for all records of communications of Rosenstein between May 8 and May 17, 2017 ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-00481)). On May 15, 2017, Public Affairs Specialist Marsha Murphy sends...

Prosecutors in charge of the federal case against Roger Stone may have lied to the Department of Justice about their lengthy prison sentence recommendation for Stone, according to a new report. Fox News reported earlier today that DOJ was blindsided by the formal recommendation from operatives tapped by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Stone be sentenced to up to nine years in prison. A source told Fox that the sentence recommendation was “extreme, excessive, and grossly disproportionate” to Stone’s crimes. “The Department was shocked to see the sentencing recommendation in the filing in the Stone case last night,” the...

The South Dakota Legislature on Monday effectively killed House Bill 1057, which sought to block physicians in the state from providing puberty blockers and gender confirmation surgery to transgender children under 16. By a 5-2 vote, the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee sent the bill “to the 41st day,” which means a bill has been effectively killed because the state’s part-time Legislature has only 40 working days. "It's gone," Quinncy Parke, 17, who is transgender and testified against the bill, told The Associated Press. “I don’t have to worry about it until next year.” The ACLU of South...

While the Islamic Republic is preparing to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the 1979 revolution, the heir to the last Shah of Iran, Prince Reza Pahlavi has described the rulers of the clergy-dominated country as an "alien cult" composed of "criminals", "thieves" who are "doomed." The Islamic Republic is set to celebrate the revolution on February 11 and present itself as the linchpin of unified Iran. The Prince, who lives in exile in the U.S. said in a new message, "The usurpers of Iran are set to cover up their latest criminal act and massacre of the people in November...

A THIRD PROSECUTOR QUIT THE ROGER STONE CASE THIS AFTERNOON As Cristina Laila reported earlier that Aaron Zelinsky abruptly resigned, then Jonathan Kravis resigned, according to a court filing in Washington federal court.And later this afternoon a third Mueller prosecutor Adam Zed announced he will withdraw from the Roger Stone case. The President earlier today called the proposed sentencing of Roger Stone a “miscarriage of justice.”

An American who was among a group that had been flown out of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China, by the U.S. government became the first evacuee to test positive for the coronavirus, health officials said. The patient had arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego last week on one of the State Department flights that ferried Americans from Wuhan. The person was released from a hospital in San Diego to return to federal quarantine after initial tests indicated they weren’t infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The patient...

On December 10, 2019, 44 Democrats introduced bill H.R.5383 called the New Way Forward Act to the House Committee on the Judiciary. On January 30, 2020, the House Committee on the Judiciary referred the bill to the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. This New Way Forward Act is one of the most radical legislation ever proposed in the history of our country. Yes, we need immigration reform but this bill is not immigration reform it is the complete obliteration of our current immigration system and replacing it with the expressed purpose of helping foreign-born criminals to move and live...

BOOM:Jussie Smollett has been indicted by a special prosecutor in Chicago for his fake hate crime HOAX last year.He is set to appear in court February 24th Justice is coming.RT! https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1227347090046472192  

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice-President Joe Biden denounced President Trump for awarding the Medal of Freedom to talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh, calling it “a travesty and stain on American history. I don’t think he understands the American code of decency and honor.” “President Obama awarded me with this medal in 2017,” Biden remembered. “Compared to me, what has Limbaugh done to advance the cause of freedom? For more than 30 years he has been loudly on the wrong side of every social, political, and economic issue. He believes that people ought to work to support themselves, that babies shouldn’t...

"Empire" actor Jussie Smollet was indicted Tuesday by a special prosecutor in Chicago investigating allegations he bogusly reported being the victim of a January 2019 hate-crime attack, officials said. Smollett, 37, was indicted by special prosecutor Dan Webb, who was appointed by a Cook County judge to continue looking into his false allegations after the Cook County State’s Attorney Office dropped all charges against the actor, a source close to Smollett told ABC news.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dealt a major blow to the United States on Tuesday (February 11), after he terminated a two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement-- delivering on threats to downgrade an alliance crucial to U.S. interests. A spokesman for the president - who has clashed with the former colonial ruler over several issues - said he decided to pull the plug on the two-decade troop rotation pact to enable the Philippines to be more independent with its relations with other countries. "As the President said, it's about time we rely on our own resources, we have to strengthen our own capability...

It’s an issue that law enforcement and District Attorneys have been raising concerns about for the last few months, that these new criminal justice bills are placing a strain on their already tight budgets. And now the Mayor of the Village of Freeport is saying he has had to find another way to cover these added costs. "We haven’t raised taxes in the Village of Freeport in 7 years," said Robert Kennedy.  Kennedy is not only the Mayor of the Village of Freeport, he is also President of the State Conference of Mayors. And he says that he has already...

"The team at 'The Daily Show' released the tool today that is specifically designed to deliver personal insults to users who tweet at the bot. The comments, which sound like they came directly from the former vice president, range from calling users a 'rinky-dinkn' toad licker' to 'a scone-eating hippie armpit'."

Attorney Alan Dershowitz filed a defamation countersuit against fellow lawyer David Boies, claiming Boies, his law firm and Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Guiffre attempted to extort money from rich and powerful men for private settlements. The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and extortion. It names billionaire Leslie Wexner as one of alleged extortion targets. This lawsuit comes in response to Boies’s suit against Dershowitz that was filed in November, accusing the attorney of disparaging Boies’s law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, by calling it “the law firm of extortion,...

The Democrats are clinging to the inevitable pious fraud that Donald Trump is a compromised president because he was impeached. After a spurious investigation in which the president had none of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of a defendant or the defenses available by precedent to presidents who are the subjects of such investigations, the Democrats charged Mr. Trump with acts that are not impeachable. Then they failed to adduce any evidence that the president had committed the acts with which they charged him.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants other senators to join him in voting against a resolution that would make President Donald Trump end any military efforts against Iran within 30 days. The binding resolution, sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was the vice president candidate on Hillary Clinton’s ticket in 2016, is expected to be voted on this week. “I will strongly oppose our colleague’s effort and urge the Senate to defeat it,” McConnell said from the Senate floor in Washington on Tuesday. The measure would “severely limit the U.S. military’s operational flexibility to defend itself against the...

Rod Thomson It’s not in the news at all with Impeachment, Coronavirus and The Latest Fictional Hysteria drawing all the airtime. But it impacts the country as much as the economy — which continues to roar along for all Americans. And it’s Trump’s signature issue: Reform the U.S. immigration system in a way that includes securing our southern border while dealing with the overstays issue and changing the makeup of legal immigration. This is not only in Trump’s re-election wheelhouse, but with the economy so strong and already in his pocket, it creates an issue the Democrats must oppose, and...