Free Republic

Did a ‘mafia’ of liberal cardinals pressure Benedict to resign?In this episode of Holy Smoke, I interview Julia Meloni, author of The St Gallen Mafia: Exposing the Secret Reformist Group Within the Church. It's the first detailed study of the self-described 'mafia' of liberal cardinals who worked tirelessly to prevent and then undermine the pontificate of Benedict XVI. The book contains many disconcerting revelations, and also well-sourced speculation that the group's founder, the Jesuit scholar Cardinal Martini of Milan, may have visited Benedict shortly before his own death in order to pressure him to resign. By 2013, when that happened,...

By now we all know the tale of socialist Cinderella, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez hitting the Met Gala red carpet to hobnob with the wealthy and powerful in a pricey couture gown emblazoned with the phrase, “Tax the Rich.“ If it was a sartorial effort to show solidarity with her working-class constituents, it only seemed to get “yas kween” snaps from the fancy people inside the fancy museum. Enter Kyrsten Sinema who basically said, “hold my Keystone Light… and Marlboro Reds.” This week, the 45-year-old presided over the Senate in a denim vest, looking like Ponyboy’s long lost sister who made...

The Big Sur Land Trust has announced that hiking reservations are now open for Mitteldorf Preserve in Carmel Valley as the installation of a new bridge has been completed, providing access to more than 1,000 acres of landscape. “One of the great benefits of having this new bridge in place is it’s going to help us manage the rest of the property better with safe access and get to some of those structures as well,” said Big Sur Land Trust President and CEO Jeannette Tuitele-Lewis. Mitteldorf Preserve served as a critical access point to the backcountry in and around the...

While I would have liked to have been less subtle in how I worded the title, Flopping Aces is a family friendly web site. One benefit of being married to a registered Democrat is seeing what kind of mailers The Radical Left is using to promote their campaigns. Today Sister Babe received two pieces of mail. The first is just, well, creepy: This is not the first mailer of this nature that Sister Babe has received. No, there is nothing stalker-ish whatsoever about going into somebody's voting history and showing that you've been snooping on them! Today, in an envelope,...

Florida has the lowest COVID-19 case rate in the country. They did it without vaccine mandates, without mask mandates in school and with no restrictions on businesses. Life simply went on. Over the summer, when Florida was experiencing a spike in cases, the media was wall-to-wall news about the numbers. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was a frequent target for the blame. His sensible moves, such as not forcing low-risk kids to wear masks, was treated as akin to murder by the media. ... Florida is doing better in per-capita cases and deaths from COVID than states that put in universal...

A Washington, D.C., district court judge temporarily blocked the Biden administration from firing unvaccinated federal employees who sued the government over religious exemptions."None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exception is pending," District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered, Fox News reports.Active duty military personnel whose religious exemptions have been denied also cannot be disciplined while the outcome of their appeals are pending. Twenty plaintiffs sued President Biden and members of his administration in their official capacity over the president's Sept. 9 executive order mandating vaccines for federal employees, according...

There won't be any tricks or treats at the White House this year. Michael LaRosa, press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, tweeted that the White House will not hold a specific Halloween event but will be illuminated in orange in celebration. The Bidens will be traveling for the annual G20 summit in Rome, and so they are encouraging families to trick-or-treat outdoors in neighborhoods or other venues. (snip) There's a long tradition of Halloween celebrations at the White House. This will be the first Halloween with the Biden administration, but it isn't the first time White House Halloween festivities...

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was told Friday that he should keep receiving communion despite his support for abortion. Biden met with Pope Francis in Vatican City behind closed doors. The topic of abortion did not come up, the president told reporters afterward. “We just talked about the fact that he was happy that I was a good Catholic,” he claimed. Asked if the pope said he should keep receiving communion, POTUS said “yes.” Biden has been in danger of being denied communion since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in June voted to approve the drafting of a...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday said she continues to see inflation as a temporary supply side-driven phenomenon that will normalize next year, and that President Joe Biden’s big spending package will actually have an anti-inflationary effect by smoothing some supply-side dislocations and footing the bill for some costs facing American families. Yellen made the remarks in separate interviews on CNN, CNBC, and CBS in Rome, where she is attending the G-20 conference of global leaders. “As demand shifts back to services and supply has a chance to adjust, I believe that price increases will normalize and we’ll see lower...

Headline inflation, including food and energy, rose at a 4.4% annual rate in September, the fastest since 1991. Core inflation, which is the Fed’s preferred gauge, increased 3.6% for the 12 months, the same as in August but still also the fastest pace in 30 years. Personal income declined at a faster pace than expected while consumer spending increased and was in line with forecasts. Employment costs rose more than expected and at the fastest annual pace in 19 years.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the pandemic still ongoing, the White House has been on the alert for anything that might cause resistance to the vaccine mandates. And they just realized that there was a constant anti-vax sentiment right under their noses: the national anthem. The last line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” implying that the U.S. is a place where people are free to make their own choices and aren’t motivated by fear — pretty much a call to ignore the government during a pandemic. “So basically, at the beginning...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—With the pandemic still ongoing, the White House has been on the alert for anything that might cause resistance to the vaccine mandates. And they just realized that there was a constant anti-vax sentiment right under their noses: the national anthem. The last line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” implying that the U.S. is a place where people are free to make their own choices and aren’t motivated by fear — pretty much a call to ignore the government during a pandemic. “So basically, at the beginning...

Mr. Volodymyr Salo. LVIV, UKRAINE — A 19-year-old philology student is dead after defying his family’s philosophical and religious objections.Mr. Volodymyr Salo, also spelled “Vladimir” in some accounts, received his first Pfizer mRNA injection on September 13 at about 2:30 p.m. local time, according to the Ukrainian Humanities Institute. Mr. Salo was a student there. His day continued as normal thereafter. He ate dinner in the student cafeteria at 6:30 p.m., then played board games with other students in the commons area. The situation quickly deteriorated from there.A high fever and general malaise kicked in around 8 p.m. Mr. Salo...

The White House said Friday it would delay the release of long-classified documents related to the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy .. Joe Biden cited the 'significant impact' of the COVID-19 pandemic as cause for the holdup.. Biden wrote in a statement that 'an interim release' of the remaining classified files 'shall be withheld from full public disclosure' until December 15.. A second batch of records will be released to the public in a 'more comprehensive release in late 2022,' .. . In 2018, Donald Trump released 19,000 secret files on the assassination, but withheld 14,000 records on...

VIDEOAlthough they didn't specifically use the F-word, it is quite clear that these liberals are admitting that Sleepy Joe Biden is a flat out FAILURE in the wake of Congress failing to pass his "Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill" despite poor Joe begging the Democrats to give him this win so he won't be humiliated when meeting world leaders in Europe.

A Hillary Clinton campaign operation to plant a false rumor about Donald Trump setting up a “secret hotline” to Moscow through a Russian bank was much broader than known and involved multiple U.S. agencies, according to declassified documents and sources briefed on an ongoing criminal investigation of the scheme. In addition to the FBI, the 2016 Clinton campaign tried to convince the Obama administration’s State Department, Justice Department and Central Intelligence Agency to look into the hoax, and continued pressing the issue even after Trump was inaugurated in January 2017. The goal was to trigger federal investigative activity targeting her...

Joe Biden’s Weakness and Worldwide Economic Turmoil Make a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Almost CertainIf Biden won't protect his own people in Afghanistan, would he lift a finger to defend Taiwan? That's the question the Chinese Communist Party is trying to answer.It’s been a while since I wrote about foreign affairs. I tend to focus on the pressing matter of the moment and in a world with Pandemic Panic Theater pushing universal vaccinations, ongoing efforts to expose the stolen 2020 election, the supply chain and energy crises, and an evil Mainstream Media Industrial Complex that is enabling all of the...

MENLO PARK, CA—Genius billionaire and totally human Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced he is building a brand new virtual reality world for everyone to live in, which he calls the "Metaverse." To help everyone plug in and get completely immersed in the virtual world, Facebook Meta has introduced high-tech virtual reality pods. "Our Meta-Pods are state of the art," said Zuckerberg in his classic warm and fully-human way. "You will submerge yourself in this gooey clear jelly for maximum comfort, and simply plug this giant cable into your head! And the pods are very energy efficient since they use...

Jonathan Moseley, defense attorney for Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter president Zach Rehl, expressed determination to confront the FBI with a subpoena in response to National File’s report that a second man – Sean Michael McHugh – was caught on camera trying to incite demonstrators to storm the Capitol Building. That report followed a comprehensive article by Revolver News breaking down considerable evidence that Ray Epps was acting as an FBI informant when he repeatedly urged Pro-Trump rally-goers to enter the Capitol. Neither McHugh nor Epps have been charged with conspiracy. Moseley’s client Zach Rehl, however, is set to stand trial...

The Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) knowingly and intentionally violated the State’s election laws and instructed subordinate election officials to do the same, according to the Racine County Sheriff, Christopher Schmaling. In a shocking press conference on Thursday, law enforcement officials from the Racine County Sheriff’s Office laid out their case of election fraud in Racine during the 2020 election. The investigation focused on abuse of voters confined to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Investigators discovered that Wisconsin Election Officials expressly discussed that their proposed conduct for the 2020 election would violate state law, and yet they decided to do...