Free Republic

An attorney who is heading an election review said earlier this week he was going to subpoena five Wisconsin mayors only days after he demanded records from city clerks and the top elections official for the state. “Former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman told the Green Bay City Council at a meeting Tuesday night he had just subpoenaed Mayor Eric Genrich — only to learn from the mayor that the subpoena had not been served. Gableman promised it would be coming soon, as would ones for the mayors of Milwaukee, Madison, Racine and Kenosha,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported...

Alvin York- 10/8/1918 On Oct. 8, 1918, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York was credited with killing 20 German soldiers and leading the capture of one hundred and thirty two more during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. It was the final Allied push on the Western front of World War I. York and his battalion were to seize control of a German-held valley when his superior officer was killed by German machine guns. York took charge, returning fire and inspiring his men to do the same. Caught out in the open, York started picking off German soldiers one by one as they attacked...

Sixteen unvaccinated athletes won another round in their legal battle to play sports, despite Western Michigan University’s mandate that all of its inter-collegiate athletes get the COVID-19 vaccination shot. In a unanimous published decision issued Oct. 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio, held that the university violated the athletes’ First Amendment rights. All 16 athletes had filed for religious exemptions, which, according to the court, the university “ignored or denied.” The court stated: “The university put plaintiffs to the choice: Get vaccinated, or stop fully participating in intercollegiate sports. By conditioning the privilege...

A federal appeals court reinstated Texas’ controversial "fetal heart beat" abortion ban on Friday night, days after a lower court suspended the Republican-backed law. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay, effectively pausing U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman’s decision to grant a temporary restraining order against the abortion ban earlier this week. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, had appealed the lower court’s decision. "Great news tonight, The Fifth Circuit has granted an administrative stay on #SB8. I will fight federal overreach at every turn," Paxton wrote on Twitter after the decision. The appeals court...

Introduction: Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe in which a confused old man - Joe Buckstop - stumbles into the presidency, and spends his entire term in his basement. Each evening, an aide walks downstairs and serves him his bowl of soup, and engages him in conversation about current events, in a losing effort to keep his mind hale. Tonight's episode is an excerpt from the ongoing series, "Evening Soup with Basement Joe," by John F. Di Leo, a fictional chronicle of the events of 2021, a political satire available in paperback or eBook from Amazon. "Hey, is da...

The University of Hong Kong has ordered the removal of a statue commemorating protesters killed in China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. The 8-metre-high (26ft) copper statue was the centrepiece of Hong Kong’s candlelit vigils on 4 June to commemorate those killed when Chinese troops backed by tanks opened fire on unarmed pro-democracy campaigners in Beijing. The statue, called the Pillar of Shame, shows 50 anguished faces and tortured bodies piled on one another, and has been on display at Hong Kong’s oldest university for more than two decades. The decision was blasted by the statue’s Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt, who...

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny can add his name to the growing list of candidates who have been shafted by the Nobel Committee this year (many grumbled when the creators of the mRNA COVID jabs didn't win the medicine Nobel).The Nobel Committee announced Friday that the winners of this year's Nobel Peace Prize are a pair of journalists who challenged "authoritarian" regimes with their fearless reporting, the Committee said. The prize ultimately went to Maria Ressa, the editor and founder of the Rappler, an independent Philippines digital-media outlet that has persisted with critical coverage of 'strongman' President Rodrigo Duterte and his...

News AnalysisBeijing’s containment strategy is failing. Instead of abating, China’s financial strains are intensifying.Last month, when concerns first arose with the insolvency of the real estate giant Evergrande, Beijing held back from getting too involved. The nation’s leadership no doubt hoped that the financial waves would calm without much effort on their part.Now with the announcements of more failures and defaults, it is apparent that financial problems are deepening and becoming more widespread. Indeed, the news is beginning to resemble the beginnings of America’s 2008-09 financial crisis. Beijing cannot avoid acting for long.The latest news is disturbing. The first tentative...

Can you spell “soft bigotry of low expectations”?The never-ending battle over New York City’s advanced school programs continues. A top NYC school in June canceled plans to scrap accelerated math classes, following an outcry from enraged parents. Yet, after years of debate, city officials on Thursday announced they will eliminate an advanced program for four-year-olds before they enter kindergarten, claiming the program “further segregates students.”City officials say the new program will allow all kindergarteners to have access to accelerated learning.As reported by ABC7 in NYC, hapless Mayor Bill de Blasio claims the replacement program, named Brilliant NYC, will provide an...

The Peshtigo fire and Our Lady of Good Help THE GREAT AMERICAN APPARITION OF MARY TOOK PLACE IN WISCONSIN “I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief by the Christian faithful” (Bishop David Ricken, pictured above)Many Catholics are familiar with the great supernatural facts of Lourdes and Fatima, but not enough Catholics (especially in the United States) are aware that the Virgin Mary appeared to Adele Brise in 1859 in Champion, Wisconsin with a message that focused on the importance of the Sacraments, catechesis of the young, and the salvation of sinners. To underscore the importance of this...

...This week, India's government unveiled a compensation program that would provide 50,000 rupees (about $670) to the families of past and future Covid-19 victims. That's more than half of what most people in the country earn annually, according to the government's most recent estimate of income per capita for the 2019-2020 financial year. In theory, the program should help people like Srivastava. But experts believe the true death toll may be many times the official tally of 450,000 ... ...only 22% of all registered fatalities were given an official cause of death, certified by a doctor, according to community medicine...

A suicide bomb attack on worshippers at a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed at least 55 people on Friday (Oct 8), in the bloodiest assault since US forces left the country. Scores more victims from the minority community were wounded in the blast, which was claimed by the Islamic State group and appeared designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. The extremist group, bitter rivals of the Taliban, has repeatedly targeted Shiites in a bid to stir up sectarian violence in Sunni-majority Afghanistan.

For the last year, we’ve noted a series of reports (read: here & here) of (supposedly retired) Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft conducting combat training missions over the skies of California. The latest sighting of the world’s first stealth aircraft, which first debuted in the early 1980s and retired in 2008, after the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighter aircraft was first fielded, was in mid-September at the Fresno Air National Guard Base, California. The US Air Force released a statement at the time stating “two F-117 Nighthawk aircraft” would be conducting “air combat training missions.” This is the...

Washington (CNN) Eleven Senate Republicans broke ranks Thursday evening to vote with all Democrats to overcome a filibuster so that the debt ceiling deal announced earlier in the day could move forward. Their votes allowed the Senate to clear the procedural hurdle and move toward increasing the debt ceiling. Here are the Republicans who voted with the Democrats: John Barrasso of Wyoming Roy Blunt of Missouri Susan Collins of Maine John Cornyn of Texas Mitch McConnell of Kentucky Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Rob Portman of Ohio Mike Rounds of South Dakota Richard Shelby of...

Some say names are a blessing from one's parents, but it might just be the exact opposite for this Indonesian boy. A couple in Tuban Regency, Indonesia, have come to their wits' end as they struggle to legally register their son, whose name is too long to for the civil registry system. His full name: Rangga Madhipa Sutra Jiwa Cordosega Akre Askhala Mughal Ilkhanat Akbar Sahara Pi-Thariq Ziyad Syaifudin Quthuz Khoshala Sura Talenta. He simply goes by Cordo, according to Coconuts Jakarta. He was born in January 2019, but has yet to receive his official documents. The boy's father, Arif...

Can a limited-time only sandwich have a midlife crisis?Last week, Nirvana's Nevermind album celebrated its 30th anniversary, a milestone that left many fans feeling especially old. But today, McDonald's made an announcement that could leave those of a certain age feeling like they have one foot in the grave: Not only is the McRib coming back… it's celebrating its big 4-0. Yes, the iconic McRib was first launched in Kansas City, Kansas, forty year ago in 1981, a time when fast food limited-time only items still felt novel. To make '80s' kids feel even older, McDonald's goes so far as...

A university is encouraging students to stop using the words manmade, mastercopy and civilisation because it believes they have sexist or racist connotations. Sociology undergraduates at Aston University in Birmingham have been advised to find replacements for words that could be seen to reinforce prejudices. Offending words include immigrants, third world, tribe, civilised and, in some contexts, native, all because of their colonialist or racist overtones. Language deemed to be sexist includes one-man show, old masters, forefathers, seminal and masterful....

When it comes to how we see and prepare for SHTF, thinking in terms of real and probable rather than fictional and possible can make a big difference. Even though SHTF has many forms and levels and is in essence complex, random, diverse and unsystematic, some patterns and principles are common to the way things unfold when it hits the fan. With Toby and Selco’s Seven Pillars of Urban Preparedness as inspiration, I came up with a different list of the 15 dynamics and realities of collapses. 1 SHTF is nuanced and happens in stagesThinking about SHTF as an ON/OFF,...

This is why Joe Biden’s staffers mute his speeches or turn off the tv when he’s speaking. Joe Biden delivered remarks before signing proclamations to restore national parks and monuments Friday afternoon. Biden coughed as he attacked Trump and struggled to read his teleprompter. At one point Joe Biden veered off script and that’s when things went south. Biden recalled a bizarre story about a little girl with a teddy bear he encountered when he was on the campaign stump. “I gotta tell you a quick story,” Biden said with a smug look on his face. “When I was running...

Along with English, science, math and other graduation requirements, California high school students will have to take a course in ethnic studies to get a diploma starting in 2029-30. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Friday that makes California among the first in the nation to list ethnic studies as a graduation requirement for all public high school students.