Free Republic

Kyle Rittenhouse says Johnny Depp’s victory over ex-wife Amber Heard, in one of the highest-profile defamation cases to go to trial, has inspired him to continue with his own defamation lawsuits....“I have a new announcement coming soon about my defamation cases, keep an eye on Fox News and TMAP [The Media Accountability Project] for more this week. Johnny Depp trial is just fueling me, you can fight back against the lies in the media, and you should!” Rittenhouse tweeted Wednesday.

A fairly new drug is finding its way into the U.S., and law enforcement personnel say it’s 20 times more potent than fentanyl. It’s called ISO, which is short for isotonitazene. The Drug Enforcement Administration says drug dealers are mixing it with other illegal drugs, making them more potent. “It is here. It’s present, and how potent this is — it’s not worth the one time they might use it. It’s not worth that extra high they might get because that could be their only time or their last time,” said Britney Morris, public information officer for the Pasco County...

After the success of Mac & Cheese ice cream, Van Leeuwen has teamed up with another unexpected Kraft brand.New York-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream has never shied away from attention-grabbing flavors, including everything from a Popeye-themed spinach ice cream to a Kraft Macaroni & Cheese ice cream that tastes like, well, Kraft Mac & Cheese. The latter flavor especially earned both massive media attention and acclaim, eventually grabbing national distribution at Walmart. So Van Leeuwen is dipping into that well again with another unexpected brand-name collaboration: Grey Poupon ice cream Grey Poupon hasn't shied away from unexpected product launches either,...

Below we consider the classic (and oh-so predictable) tactics of debt-soaked nations facing a showdown (corner) between tanking markets and ripping inflation. Ultimately, I see a stagflationary end-game in which both occur, but for the near-term, prepare for more inflation, as it’s the option all debt-soaked sovereigns are eternally forced to take. The Cruelest MonthT.S. Elliot famously described April as the cruelest month, but the recent (and ever-unfolding) events of May seem far crueler. As we have warned from the very onset of this otherwise avoidable war in Ukraine, the backfiring of Western sanctions against Putin (de-dollarization, inflationary tailwinds and...

A mother has been left with a broken nose, two black eyes and a concussion after she stepped in when a gang of teen girls turned up at her home looking to fight her daughter. Michelle Audo, 48, confronted the group of 14-year-olds when they arrived at her house at night in Blue Springs, Missouri, on May 14. They had allegedly been there to attack her 16-year-old girl but she stepped in before they got the chance. Audo revealed how she was repeatedly punched during the assault, suffering a broken nose, two black eyes and a concussion. The brutal onslaught...

An assembly of people gathered in January 1972 in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for a service of sorts – though not the ordinary kind. Leading that day's song sermon was "Miss Aretha Franklin," as she was introduced to the audience by the Rev. James Cleveland. Franklin didn't address the crowd herself; instead, she let the first few lines of her rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Wholy Holy" speak for themselves: "People, we’ve got to come together / because we need the strength, the power and all the feeling.” Franklin, then one of the most prominent and...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick conceded the Republican primary in Pennsylvania for U.S. Senate to celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, ending his campaign Friday night as he acknowledged an ongoing statewide recount wouldn’t give him enough votes to make up the deficit. McCormick said he had called Oz to concede. “It’s now clear to me with the recount now largely complete that we have a nominee,” McCormick said at a campaign party at a Pittsburgh hotel. “Tonight is really about all us coming together.”........

Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Friday Commencement speech accused Donald Trump and Republicans of pushing conspiracy theories against him. “While genuine differences of opinion or ideology are part of a healthy society, increasingly we are hearing, reading and seeing outlandish statements and pronouncements propped up by deliberate distortions of reality,” Fauci prefaced during his keynote address at the City College of New York in Harlem.

1901 Building Group is dedicating the first historic marker to Birth of Funk Music in historic downtown Kinston. Join the 1901 Building Group as they partner with The North Carolina Arts Council, The North Carolina Museum of History, and The William G. Pomeroy Foundation and Performing Artists as they celebrate funk music. The event will be held from 4:00pm - 7:00pm at 129 North Queen Street, Kinston, NC. The dedication will take place at 4:00pm with a “Fancy Chitlin’ Circuit” - Dessert Reception from 5-7pm, hosted by Artsy Choci.

So. We vilify action men, brand chivalry and valor “toxic masculinity,” stamp on the manly virtues that made civilization possible. Then we are shocked when armed cops stand around outside a classroom while children are slaughtered, or when straphangers watch passively as a woman is ­assaulted on the subway. SNIP We pathologize manly virtues and bow to the tyranny of identity politics that seeks power by overthrowing a make-believe patriarchy. We raise boys in a soup of ­reproach and negativity that tells them their intrinsic nature is ­diseased.

The FBI placed former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro in attempted assassin John Hinckley Jr.’s jail cell after they arrested him for being in contempt of Congress. Federal authorities arrested Navarro on Friday after a grand jury indicted him for contempt of Congress. Navarro told reporters outside the courthouse that the arresting officers put him in Hinckley’s old cell. Hinckley was recently released after serving more than four decades in prison following his failed assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan.

Instead of President Ronald Reagan saying ““Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” we need someone to tell President Biden and Federal Reserve Jerome Powell to “Stop driving up prices and making housing unaffordable.” Unfortunately, The Fed thinks that raising interest rates will temper price increases — it won’t. But it could tamper home price growth. So what we are left with is soaring home prices AND soaring mortgage rates, leaving this scary chart from Black Knight of monthly P&I payment to average purchase price of housing in the US. Its only going to get worse from here. Today’s jobs report...

The 26-year-old woman shot and seriously injured by Kansas City police on Friday is not pregnant, according to a local faith leader who said he is working with her family. “Leonna Hale is not, in fact, pregnant,” Rev. Timothy Hayes, pastor of the 24-hour Faith Training Center in Kansas City, said Thursday.

The cop in charge during the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre arrived without a police radio and immediately made the call to “fall back” rather than confront the gunman, a new report said.......

Last month, Bay Area counties announced that were opting not to mandate masks indoors amid the current uptick of COVID-19 cases, citing low hospitalization numbers, as well as the fact that the highly vaccinated region is well-protected against severe illness and death. On Thursday, Alameda County broke ranks by once again implementing an indoor mask mandate "to limit the impact of increasing COVID-19 cases on hospitalizations." The mandate, which takes effect June 3, applies to most indoor settings, save K-12 schools and the city of Berkeley, which sets its own health protocols. The state lifted its school mask mandate earlier...

[Catholic Caucus] Jesuit in Rome admits Francis is correcting JPII moral theology'It is fundamental to untie the knots of Veritatis Splendor'Julio Martinez, S.J.: Pope Francis “has introduced discernment in the concrete circumstances of marriage and family life."Amoris Laetitia, the apostolic exhortation published by Pope Francis in March 2016 after the two synods of bishops on the family, not only radically altered the church’s concrete pastoral approach to marriage and the family, it also opened new ways of doing moral theology in the 21st century, Julio Martinez, S.J., a Spanish priest and moral theologian, told America magazine in an exclusive interview....

Here's what to watch for.Film fans everywhere were shocked by the recent death of actor Ray Liotta, who reportedly died in his sleep on May 26 at the age of 67. This comes a few months after comedian Bob Saget, 65, died from a head injury while he was sleeping. While passing away during sleep seems peaceful and preferable to many, when it happens to people in their 60s (relatively young these days), it can seem scary. Although we don't know Liotta's cause of death, experts say 90% of sudden, unexpected deaths at night are caused by cardiac arrest. Here's...

Happy 3334th anniversary (Sunday) of G-d speaking to the Jewish people on Mt Sinai, and giving humanity the Ten Commandments. Now you know why there are so many Jewish CPAs....They just never stop counting.

911 dispatcher fired after allegedly hanging up on store employee during Buffalo shooting call The dispatcher shouted at an assistant office manager at Tops Friendly Market, asked why she was whispering and hung up, the employee said. The 911 dispatcher accused of hanging up on an employee calling for help during the supermarket shooting that killed 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, last month has been fired, officials said. The assistant office manager at Tops Friendly Market called 911 when a white gunman, 18, stormed the store on May 14 and opened fire.