Free Republic

The Oscars are a day away and are already coming under fire. The city of Los Angeles is being accused of hiding the homeless as Hollywood prepares to toast itself ahead of Sunday’s 93rd Academy Awards ceremony. One man told local news he was told to either move or have his things demolished. The celebrity-studded ceremony is being held at Union Station in Los Angeles, an area bedeviled by homelessness. But on Sunday, the homeless will not be seen anywhere near Union Station, according to a report by Fox 11 Los Angeles. “They came to us about a week ago...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — An Asian man is hospitalized Saturday from a vicious attack in East Harlem that was caught on camera and is now being investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force.According to police, the 61-year-old victim was out collecting cans and bottles around 8 p.m. Friday when another man shoved him from behind, CBS2’s Christina Fan reported.It happened near the corner of Third Avenue and East 125th Street. Officers are reviewing surveillance video of the assault.NYC: help your @NYPDDetectives find the person responsible for this brutal attack 800-577-TIPS https://t.co/UKd4V2K0sE— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) April 24, 2021For at least...

Here, whatever the actor’s politics, Cap as a character is wholly Conservative, with Libertarian leanings. And it isn’t just what’s on the surface. .... He’s against bullies. There’s no attempt at moral equivalency, here—as far as he’s concerned, America is not the bully, nor has it ever been. Nor will it ever be, if the later movies in the MCU are any indication. Rather, as far as Steve’s concerned, America fights bullies. And that’s why he wants to serve. But of course, this is WWII—the “good war” that even the Left (for the most part) approves of. And yet…there is...

A FactCheck.org project addressing common COVID-19 “misconceptions” owes its existence to a philanthropic organization that has around 15 percent of its assets tied up in Johnson & Johnson stock. The top of the project homepage reads as follows: “SciCheck’s COVID-19/Vaccination Project is made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.” Interestingly enough, Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04) has discovered that 15.9 percent of the foundation’s assets consist of Johnson & Johnson common stock. Out of $11.9 million in assets, nearly $1.9 million has been invested...

Vance is the best-selling author of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which is a culturally compliant — namely unflattering — account of poor, white America. Provided your thesis allows for a cozy convergence over agreeable storylines — you are well-positioned to peddle a national bestseller to the approving left, libertarian, neoconservative and pseudo-conservative smart-set. Yes, Vance is a sellout. Not that they were asked for their take, but the archetypical folks depicted in Hillbilly Elegy contend, justifiably, that “Vance [is] not an authentic hillbilly or an example of the working class.”

The methodology behind the Maricopa election audit has been kept under wraps, but video of the audit appears to show the technique that many had hoped to see. When inventor Jovan Pulitzer testified in Georgia that he could detect fraudulent ballots by scanning them and running them through a high-tech analysis that included pattern recognition algorithms, many who believe the 2020 election was stolen started calling for this process to be widely applied in audits. But the price tag was high and legal roadblocks have slowed or stopped most attempted forensic audits from happening. Maricopa County in Arizona is one...

California will stop issuing new permits for hydraulic fracking by January 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday. The Democrat governor also instructed the California Air Resources Board to research how to phase out oil extraction by 2045 in the Golden State. The move is regarded mostly as symbolic as California Department of Conservation records show fracking accounts for only 2 percent of oil extraction in the state. “The climate crisis is real, and we continue to see the signs every day,” Newsom said in a statement. “I’ve made it clear I don’t see a role for fracking in that...

More than 500 U.S. federally funded scientists have been flagged over their financial ties with China and other foreign adversaries, the National Institutes of Health has revealed. As of April, the federal health agency has reached out to 90 institutions that receive government grants regarding 200 researchers. It has also removed 100 from the “NIH ecosystem” through resignation, termination, premature retirements, or internal departments, according to Michael Lauer, deputy director for extramural research at the NIH. Lauer said that the biggest challenge is simply “the workload of dealing with a very large number of cases.” “Each of these requires a...

A lot of folks are wondering what Kamala Harris is doing about the border crisis, asking when she will be going to the border.As my colleague Mike Miller wrote earlier today, Harris did make it to the border. Just the wrong border, as Republicans noted. She went to New Hampshire to push Joe Biden’s ‘infrastructure’ plan, which is about so many things other than infrastructure, it’s become a joke. According to the NY Post, she was met by protesters there, who told her she should be going to the southern border instead.But while Harris hasn’t made it to the southern...

Last week, I covered the story of Alabama’s legislature passing HB391, which would ban males from competing in girls’ sports.The crux, as worded by the bill:Relating to public K-12 schools; to provide that no public K-12 school may participate in, sponsor, or provide coaching staff for interscholastic athletic events at which athletes are allowed to participate in competition against athletes who are of a different biological gender, unless the event specifically includes both biological genders.At the time, it was uncertain as to whether the state’s Republican governor — Kay Ivey — would sign it into law.On Friday, Kay put pen...

Saturday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) appeared on CNN’s “Newsroom” to respond to remarks from Judge Peter Cahill near the close of the Derek Chauvin trial last week about Waters’ call for confrontation over a potential outcome in the trial. Waters was dismissive of Cahill’s concern and downplayed claims that she had interfered with the jury’s deliberation. “Well, he did walk it back,” Waters said. “And as you said, he closed with a congresswoman’s opinion doesn’t matter. And I think he was angry. I think he may be frustrated with this case and how much world publicity is on it...

Banks in Europe are doing the unthinkable…They’re turning away large cash deposits. I’m not kidding…Deutsche Bank, one of Germany’s top lenders, is effectively turning away many deposits of 100,000 euros or more. And if it does accept your deposit, then it will charge you a 0.5% annual fee to keep your money in the bank.You’re paying the bank to hold your cash. And at 100,000 euros, you’re losing 500 euros a year in negative interest.If this sounds a bit crazy… well, it is.Today, I’ll explain why it’s happening…We’ve gotten used to near-zero interest rates at major banks since the global...

Glacial melting due to global warming is likely the cause of a shift in the movement of the poles that occurred in the 1990s. The locations of the North and South poles aren't static, unchanging spots on our planet. The axis Earth spins around—or more specifically the surface that invisible line emerges from—is always moving due to processes scientists don't completely understand. The way water is distributed on Earth's surface is one factor that drives the drift.Melting glaciers redistributed enough water to cause the direction of polar wander to turn and accelerate eastward during the mid-1990s, according to a new...

Rep. Maxine Waters says those criticizing her recent rhetoric about former police officer Derek Chauvin would leave her without conduits to express her dissent when "police keep killing us." Waters said her critics get "mad" when her followers kneel, speak up, or protest, leaving activists with little recourse. "What is it that they expect us to do when police keep killing us?" she tweeted Saturday night. The California Democrat attracted controversy when she demanded Chauvin be found “guilty, guilty, guilty" in the killing of Floyd following an arrest in Minneapolis last May. “We’re looking for a guilty verdict,” she told...

A Harvard-educated Texas Democratic lawmaker drew double-takes for declaring at a hearing that there are six sexes, prompting a rebuke from skeptics who said his count was off by four. Texas state Rep. James Talarico made his pronouncement prior to public testimony Tuesday before the Public Education Committee on House Bill 4042, a measure to bar transgender athletes from girls’ K-12 scholastic sports. Mr. Talarico, a former English teacher, first quizzed Republican state Rep. Cole Hefner, the bill’s sponsor, on how many sexes there are. Mr. Hefner said there were two. “The bill seems to think there are two,” said...

RENTON, WA—In a bold move for inclusivity, Wizards of the Coast announced today that all copies of the Dungeons & Dragons starter set will include a special D100 for determining your character's gender. "Not sure if your Half-Orc Paladin is a demiboy or agender? Just roll this handy new die," said a WOTC rep. "It makes character creation fast, fun, and streamlined. And don't worry -- if you don't like your gender, just roll it again, no questions asked. In fact, you can do that at any point during the game without even consulting your DM. Change at any time."...

This could be huge. An independent commission could deliver major change to the military’s justice system by removing prosecution authority for sexual assault and harassment cases from the chain of command. A panel set up by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, called the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, has recommended that sexual assault and harassment cases be taken out of the chain of command and given instead to “a civilian-led office of the Chief Special Victim Prosecutor,” the Associated Press reported on Thursday. The Chief Special Victim Prosecutor would be the one to decide whether or...

Christianity and Heresy Do Not MixToday's 'ecumenism' is flawed reductionismPart III of a three-part series on Church teaching on ecumenism. Read Part I and Part II.Christ is truly present in the Eucharist If our ecumenical endeavors do not seek total unity in the truth — that is, in dogma, morals, government and worship — all we will be doing is simply being polite, comparing notes and opinions, making comments on our own beliefs and ending up saying, "Well, that's what we believe and, in the end, surely we worship the same God, and what really matters is what you have...

Kiran Ahuja, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Personnel Management, has said her goal is to free "black queer and trans people" from the "daily trials of white supremacy." If confirmed, Ahuja would help set hiring standards and coordinate diversity training across the entire federal government. Until her February nomination, Ahuja was the CEO of Philanthropy Northwest, a nonprofit that offers "diversity, equity, and inclusion-focused programs" to philanthropic foundations. In a blog post written last year on Philanthropy Northwest's website, Ahuja pledged to play a "vocal role in our country’s eternal battle for racial equality." The post...

On January 20, 2021, a great mystery appeared in the internet’s global routing table. An entity that hadn’t been heard from in over a decade began announcing large swaths of formerly unused IPv4 address space belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense. Registered as GRS-DoD, AS8003 began announcing 11.0.0.0/8 among other large DoD IPv4 ranges. According to data available from University of Oregon’s Routeviews project, one of the very first BGP messages from AS8003 to the internet was: TIME: 01/20/21 16:57:35 TYPE: BGP4MP/MESSAGE/Update FROM: 62.115.128.183 AS1299 TO: 128.223.51.15 AS6447 ORIGIN: IGP ASPATH: 1299 6939 6939 8003 NEXT_HOP: 62.115.128.183 ANNOUNCE 11.0.0.0/8...