Free Republic

Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brett Blomme stood mute during a court appearance on Thursday in the face of felony charges of possessing child pornography. In March, the former children’s court judge was charged with seven felony counts of possession of child pornography. A complaint accused him of uploading graphic images and videos of boys as young as toddlers to an online messaging site. Blomme appeared before Dane County Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn on Thursday by video. He waived his right to a preliminary hearing and stood mute in the face of the charges. The court entered a plea of...

The Tennessee legislature included an amendment to an election-related bill that would require a “non-visible” watermark on every absentee ballot. The Tennessee Election Integrity Act, which passed the Senate 27-0 and the House 92-1, would go into effect in January 2022 if Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) signs it, the Center Square reported. AD According to a bill summary: Under present law, signature verification is the final verification necessary before a counting board counts absentee ballots. Under this amendment, signature verification will remain part of the verification process but will not be the final verification. This amendment requires a counting board...

On April 22, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed SB215, the Montana Religious Freedom Restoration Act (full text). It provides in part: State action may not substantially burden a person's right to the exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless it is demonstrated that applying the burden to that person's exercise of religion: (a) is essential to further a compelling governmental interest; and (b) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.Christianity Today reports on the new law.

Students at the University of Florida say NBA star LeBron James is “hypocritical” for using police escorts after publicly spreading anti-police rhetoric. James faced heavy backlash last month, after tweeting — and then deleting — a photo of a Columbus, Ohio, police officer who was present during the fatal shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, with the caption, “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY,” in all-caps.

Connecticut will no longer allow a religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities, becoming the sixth state to end that policy. The legislation was signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Ned Lamont, hours after the Democratic-controlled Senate passed the bill late Tuesday night. More than 2,000 opponents had rallied outside the state Capitol building, arguing the legislation unfairly infringes on their religious liberties and parental rights. “Proud to sign this bill into law to protect as many of our school children as possible from infectious diseases as we can,” Lamont said in a tweet,...

Cdl. Mahony Sued for Sexually Assaulting Male TeenLawsuit charges LA archdiocese with cover-upLOS ANGELES (ChurchMilitant.com) (warning: some explicit content) - A new lawsuit accuses California Cdl. Roger Mahony of sexually abusing a male minor. It is the first such lawsuit ever brought against the former archbishop of Los Angeles.Former Cathedral of St. Vibiana, Los Angeles, nowprivately owned and renovated into an entertainment venueFiled April 19 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the plaintiff, under the alias John Doe, is suing "The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles," which includes Cdl. Roger Mahony and staff of the archdiocese.The lawsuit alleges Mahony "repeatedly...

WHIPPANY, NJ—Bayer AG, the multinational pharmaceutical corporation, has announced a brand new line of trans-friendly Flintstones vitamins laced with puberty-blocking hormones. To help normalize early childhood transition, the vitamins will be on sale over the counter without restriction. "Yes, zis seems all very ethical," said Bayer CEO Hans Von Himmler while stroking his pet cat-pig hybrid. "Ve simply give ze little girl-child ze hormones, and then ze beard grows. Ve always on ze right side of history." Flintstones vitamins' new girl-to-boy chewables will be made of anabolic steroids with vitamins and delicious fruit flavors added in. The vitamins will be...

On April 26, Xinhua, the mouthpiece of the communist regime, published an article to commemorate a Chinese carrier-based J-15 fighter jet pilot, who died in an accident as a result of his jet’s electronic control system malfunctioning during a landing; the article inadvertently revealed the weakness of the carrier’s combat capabilities. There have always been doubts about the true capability of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aircraft carriers and their carrier-based J-15 pilot training. This unprecedented report appears more of an attempt to restore public confidence, as the CCP’s media rarely publicizes such accidents involving the military. In fact, the...

The Chinese regime is positioning itself for the next iteration of the communications technology race with Western rivals by launching a national project to coordinate its major space actors. China’s first centrally administrated satellite internet company was inaugurated in Xiongan New Area, southwest of Beijing, on April 28, according to the state-owned China Daily. Han Zheng, the vice-premier of the Chinese regime, reviewed the company’s proposed location and witnessed the cooperative agreement signed with the local administrative committee before attending the inauguration ceremony, said the report. Space-based internet can provide high-performance services through mega-constellations of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites,...

Following days of deadly protests across Colombia against a planned nationwide tax increase, President Iván Duque has withdrawn the proposal that he insisted was needed to fix the country's pandemic-battered economy. Protests that began last week have led to multiple deaths, and they continued over the weekend despite a promise by Duque on Friday to remove some of the bill's most controversial provisions. On Sunday, he announced the proposed overhaul would be shelved and replaced. "I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the finance ministry and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus,...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hH38uMELxj8&noapp=1 Frank Luntz and Kevin McCarthy are roommates!! Tucker Carlson breaks the weird story Three Minutes

The Leftist agenda to destroy children through the toxic Critical Race Theory (CRT) curriculum was dealt a significant blow this past weekend.Opponents of anti-racism education win big in a bitterly divided election in Southlake, Texas. Conservative candidates who opposed a school diversity plan won every local race, taking about 70% of the vote in the wealthy Dallas-Fort Worth suburb. https://t.co/m7rtlYh3X0— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 3, 2021Nine months after officials in the affluent Carroll Independent School District introduced a proposal to combat racial and cultural intolerance in schools, voters delivered a resounding victory Saturday to a slate of school board and...

Sounds from the movie “Galaxy Quest” and a Village People song drowned out a livestreamed Congressional subcommittee meeting Monday, forcing lawmakers to temporarily recess. Members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development didn’t seem to hear the audio, which played for about 20 minutes until subcommittee chairwoman Marcy Kaptur called for a break. “We’ve been informed that we’ll have to take a brief recess now because we’re having technical issues and we’re gonna just be briefly recessing for a second here,” Rep. Kaptur, D-Ohio, said. Rep. Mary Kaptur during the subcommittee meeting on May 3, 2021. Rep....

Federal tax officials should launch a forensic audit and investigation of more than 125 U.S. firms with significant links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that received up to $420 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan funds last year, according to the founder of a citizens group devoted to government transparency. “Communist Chinese defense contractors used a legal loophole to hijack up to $400 million meant for small businesses on Main Street at the peak of the pandemic. It’s time to forensic audit these firms. On behalf of the American taxpayer and mom and pop businesses everywhere, the IRS...

Moving Beyond Vatican IIHow do you solve a problem like Vatican II? While perhaps not as catchy as the classic Sound of Music tune, this question is far more complex than trying to marry off the future Baroness von Trapp. Catholics have been arguing over the council since before it even ended in 1965. While it was intended to usher the Church into the modern world, there’s no question that Vatican II and how to properly interpret it has been the most divisive issue in today’s Church—and the raging debate shows no signs of subsiding. Perhaps, though, it’s time to...

Lumber: +265% WTI Crude: +210% Gasoline: +182% Brent Crude +163% Heating Oil: +107% Corn: +84% Copper: +83% Soybeans: +72% Silver: +65% Sugar: +59% Cotton: +54% Platinum: +52% Natural Gas: +43% Palladium: +32% Wheat: +19% Coffee: +13% Biden administration officials would like for us to believe that this inflationary period will just be “temporary”, but exactly how do they plan to achieve that? Do they have a plan to somehow pull trillions of dollars out of the system? No, they are planning to borrow and spend trillions more. In the 1970s, double-digit inflation made headlines for years on end. Many people...

Former Oregon House Speaker and current Clackamas Community College board member Dave Hunt (Democrat) was cited by Portland police in an undercover sex traffic sting operation in April. Contacted by the Portland Tribune on Monday, Hunt said, "I don't think I should talk about that." Clackamas Community College announced several hours later that Hunt was taking a leave from the board. As a legislator, Hunt was one of numerous sponsors of a bill criminalizing sex trafficking in 2007. In 2011, he also voted for HB 2714, the bill that created the crime of commercial sexual solicitation, the crime for which...

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) stated that there is emotional fatigue among black lawmakers because they have to have conversations with those “who want to turn a blind eye to the injustices that exist within our systems, who continue to insist that this country is not a country that is racist, that our systems don’t have racism embedded in them.” Omar said, “I think there is a lot of emotional exhaustion that many of us who are black lawmakers and black people in public service are experiencing. Because every single day you know that...

We’ve heard BLM preach their false doctrine for years. It’s time for a rebuttal.

The Biden administration is reportedly considering contracting outside firms to track ​”extremist” chatter online in order to circumvent legal restrictions on the surveillance power of federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security. While the move would expand the government’s intelligence gathering capability, it would also add fuel to the widespread criticism of the government’s vast surveillance power and spawn possible legal action over the monitoring of Americans, CNN reported, citing sources. The DHS is limited in its ability to surveil Americans on social media sites without strong justification and is prohibited from using false identities to get access to...