Free Republic

We have a voting crisis in the United States right now, and it's not the story we're being told by Democrats, the media or even Republicans. It's a crisis of poor and inconsistent voter involvement and engagement. It's a crisis of finding compromise over voter integrity, which clearly does not exist by virtue of Russia's ability to interfere with the 2016 elections and subsequent attempts in 2020. The United States does have problems with its voting, but it's not in the way many may think. During the 2020 presidential election, at least 158.8 million people voted for then-President Donald Trump...

One would think that a food item like Ritz Crackers, which has been around for almost nine decades, would be pretty straightforward and everyone would know everything there is to know about it by now. One would be mistaken. The salty goodness hits the spot in so many different situations. Plus, it is the perfect size for snacking with its seven perforations and a scalloped edge that fit almost perfectly in your mouth. Speaking of that finely scalloped edge, did you know that it isn’t just there for looks? It actually was put on the cracker for a very specific...

FLEETWOOD, Pa. – On a hot Wednesday afternoon, a section of Main Street in Fleetwood seemed fairly calm, but hours earlier, it was filled with federal agents taking Alan Byerly into custody. According to a criminal complaint complete with multiple images of Byerly donning a Kutztown, PA knit hat, he assaulted a number of Metropolitan and Capitol police officers and an Associated Press photographer. Alan Byerly can be seen charging through the crowd on that now infamous January day in Washington, D.C., with what the feds say is a taser-like device. The images caught the eye of an EMPLOYEE at...

July 8, 2021 Thursday of week 14 in Ordinary Time Church of St. Kilian, Wilmont Township, Minnesota Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green.First readingGenesis 44:18-21,23-29,45:1-5 ©Joseph reveals himself to his brothersJudah went up to Joseph and said, ‘May it please my lord, let your servant have a word privately with my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord questioned his servants, “Have you father or brother?” And we said to my lord, “We have an old father, and a younger brother born of his old age. His brother is dead, so he...

Most people in the United States believe that Biden administration officials, and not President Joe Biden, are directing the country's agenda and policy, according to a national poll. Fifty-seven percent of respondents to a Convention of States Action and Trafalgar Group poll said the president is not fully executing the duties of his office. Thirty-six percent said they were confident that he was directing all policy and agenda matters.

The information about this incident was found in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. This correspondent has not found any other media coverage. The incident is confirmed by the investigation noted in the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team report for 2016, Table 16, incident 201414. In the report, the sow bear was counted as probable mortality.On 9 September 2014, a bow hunter was calling and stalking elk in Montana. He was in the Gallatin National Forest, up Indian Creek, in the vicinity of Shedhorn Ridge, at dusk. The hunter was about three miles, as the crow flies,...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Psalm 118Psalm 118 1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.” 3 Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.” 4 Let those who fear the Lord say: “His love endures forever.” 5 When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. 6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? 7 The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I look...

As the Biden Administration withdraws U.S. combat forces from Afghanistan, the prevailing media headline declares, with panicked certainty, that America has failed and suffered a strategic defeat. All is lost out there. Trillions of taxpayer dollars were squandered. Our killed and wounded in action suffered in vain. Etcetera. That loser narrative ignores the historical fact that occupying and governing Afghanistan was never America's objective. Stabilizing? Yes, but I'll get back to that in a moment. Fact: When U.S. military personnel entered Afghanistan in September 2001, America's goal was to cripple and destroy the communication, supply and personnel networks supporting Osama...

As the nation limps out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans assume that we are also leaving behind the serious -- and in some cases, shocking -- power grabs that government leaders insisted were necessary to "defeat the virus." The headlines suggest otherwise. A number of trends have emerged, the confluence of which should concern all Americans who love this country and value their freedom. First and foremost is the obsession with characterizing the Jan. 6 riot in the Capitol as an "insurrection." Like so much else the American public has been told in recent years, this is a "narrative"...

(CNN)Twenty four states have seen an uptick of at least 10% in Covid-19 cases over the past week as health experts and the federal government keep pressing for more people to get vaccinated. The rapid spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has only ratcheted up the pressure. We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of Covid-19 on steroids," Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to Joe Biden's Covid Response Team, told CNN on Wednesday. "It's twice as infectious. Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the Delta variant in its tracks:...

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker and ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump is launching a “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election, demanding cooperation from counties and mimicking a widely criticized partisan effort in Arizona. Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, issued letters to three counties Wednesday, giving officials there a sweeping information request, with the threat of subpoenas for holdouts who do not respond affirmatively by July's end. The effort is facing strident opposition from Democrats, and any Senate-issued subpoenas for a partisan Arizona-style “election audit ” will almost certainly be challenged in Pennsylvania’s courts. Arizona's audit was widely criticized...

Declaring their independence from British rule 245 years ago, the American colonists held "these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They went on to announce, "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely...

A judge in Texas earlier this year effectively denied a U.S. citizen her constitutionally protected due process rights, choosing instead to order her to appear before an Islamic tribunal where her testimony is considered inferior. And when her lawyers sounded the alarm — the judge doubled down. What are the details? In March, Collin County District Judge Andrea Thompson ordered a Muslim woman seeking a divorce from her husband to undergo arbitration not through regular channels but through an Islamic court, also known as a Fiqh Panel — a move that the woman’s lawyers argue is an obvious and unconscionable...

If a history professor asserted that black holes don’t exist, would anyone pay any attention to him? What about an English professor who advocates Lamarckian evolutionary theory over Darwin? How about a sociologist who believes in alchemy? What if these folks didn’t just have weird beliefs, what if they taught these ideas in their classes? What if they wrote articles and books and gave public speeches extoling them? The answer is obvious. They would be dismissed as kooks. And much more. On a typical university campus, the physics department would probably demand that the history professor stop spouting fake physics...

Former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday sued three tech giants — Facebook, Twitter and Google — and the firms’ chief executives after the platforms took various steps to ban him or block him from posting. Mr. Trump, speaking from his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, announced that he would serve as the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, arguing that he has been censored wrongfully by the tech companies. Speaking about “freedom of speech” and the First Amendment — which applies to the government, not to private-sector companies — Mr. Trump called his lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in...

But that’s the data we have and the pros are paying attention. “To me, the conventional wisdom that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) is favored just b/c she won a write-in campaign back in 2010 and Alaska has a new top-four system has never been that compelling,” tweeted Dave Wasserman in response to the Change Research numbers. “AK’s a red state, and GOP voters now view her as a Dem.” Another explained the difference between Murkowski and the recently reelected Susan Collins well: “Maine Republicans know Collins is about the most conservative Senator they can get from their state. Alaska Republicans...

Question my sanity, but I'm considering running in this election to recall California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Here's a big reason why. No one doubts that bad K-12 public school teachers exist. There is a phenomenon known as the "turkey trot," in which bad teachers wind up in the worst schools. Why? There is a connection between bad schools and lack of parental involvement. When you have strong parental involvement, parents pressure their schools to remove such teachers. Because of strong, protective teachers unions, these teachers are rarely fired, merely shuffled from school to school, until they land in one...

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I was curious about who would come after Pelosi if Biden and (for some reason) Harris are out. Holy Crap!!!! It's scary!!!! Below is the current line of succession for the President of the United States: 1 Vice President Kamala Harris 2 Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi 3 President pro tempore of the Senate Patrick Leahy 4 Secretary of State Antony Blinken 5 Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen 6 Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin 7 Attorney General Merrick Garland 8 Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland 9 Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack 10 Secretary of Commerce...

I don’t know how to put this delicately, but I don’t give a damn what happens to Afghanistan after our troops leave. Maybe that’s controversial to say, I honestly have no idea, but I don’t care either. They’ve had 20 years and a fortune spent on them by us; if they can’t get their act together after that, they get what they deserve. I know it’s not fashionable to say among the “intelligentsia,” those who love war, and many think tank conservatives who’ve never held a job not dependent upon who their parents are or some rich guy cutting a...