Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump has endorsed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for a ninth term in office, standing behind the California Republican despite leaked audio of Mr. McCarthy suggesting he would ask Mr. Trump to resign following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Mr. McCarthy, 57, is poised to become House speaker next year if the Republicans regain the majority, which polling and political analysis suggest is very likely. Mr. Trump praised Mr. McCarthy’s “Commitment to America” platform that would resume work on the southern border wall started during the Trump administration, restart energy projects halted by...

As a former rice farmer in northern California, I can testify to the stupidity and insanity of environmentalists who favor obscure fish over humans. Water to farmers is now below growing levels and will cause devastation to the 2022 rice industry, taking down farmers as well as all related industries. The fact that the world is facing a major food shortage means nothing to these environmental zealots. ⁃ TN EditorColusa County in Northern California is the top producer of rice in the Sacramento Valley. Colusa County historically produces more than 150,000 acres of rice in a normal year. But in...

It’s official: the world is committed to rapidly reducing CO2 emissions. Just look at the the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, or President Biden’s April 22, 2021 press release, or California’s SB 100 climate act, or New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or Germany’s Energiewende, or the UK’s Net Zero pledge, or any of many other such pledges. And essentially all of woke corporate America is on board with the program. Consider the tidal wave of so-called “ESG” investing, focused on re-organizing corporate activities to reduce carbon emissions. Super-woke banking giant JP Morgan is leading the charge. From a...

Jim needs prayers.

The National Football League has hired its first openly transgender cheerleader. Justine Lindsay, 29, told the world in an Instagram post in March she made the Topcats, the cheerleading squad for the Carolina Panthers. In that same Instagram post, she also came out as transgender.

Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Paleolithic site in Malaga, Spain, owing to its rich inventory of rock art. According to new research, Neanderthals entered this cave in the Middle Paleolithic, over 65,000 years ago and left traces of symbolic practices on the cave walls; thereafter the cave was repeatedly visited by Homo sapiens all the way to the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic period.Cueva de Ardales is the most outstanding cave with Paleolithic rock art in southern Iberia.The cave is located near the village of Ardales, in a mountain know as Cerro de la Calinoria, at 565 m above sea level...

Close on the heels of the climate disclosures for companies, the SEC has issued a much-needed proposal on standardizing ESG disclosures for ESG funds. I believe greenwashing is rampant in ESG funds as I have documented in academic papers with colleagues and in Forbes columns before. The DWS greenwashing scandal is potentially just the tip of the iceberg. The new ESG funds rule is a 350 odd page document. I just finished reading most of the salient requirements. I realize that the SEC has also issued a rule on naming of funds. I will address that rule in another column.

Less lavish than amphitheaters for the civilian population, the military amphitheaters were used for training and entertainment by the troops.Archaeologists excavating at the base of the Legio VI Ferrata Roman Legion near Megiddo (known as Legio) believe they have found evidence of the first military amphitheater to be identified in the Southern Levant.While remains of over 230 Roman civilian amphitheaters have been found throughout what was the territory of the Roman Empire, fewer military amphitheaters have been excavated, and most of those are in the western regions of the empire...The archaeological project at Legio is conducted under the auspices of...

Google opted against highlighting the 78th anniversary of D-Day on its search engine’s “Google Doodle” on Monday, choosing instead to present an animation celebrating the birthday of Angelo Moriondo, the investor of the espresso machine. “Today’s coffee-stained Google Doodle is in honor of Angelo Moriondo, the Italian innovator who created the espresso machine,” noted 9to5Google of the search engine’s accompanied espresso-themed animation. The Masters of the Universe completely ignored that June 6 is also the anniversary of the D-Day invasion, a pivotal moment of World War II

Fragmented tau that accumulates in neurons in those with Alzheimer’s disease may be a new target for drugs to treat the neurodegenerative disease. The form of tau, which is broken into fragments that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, is likely to play a role in the degenerative progression associated with the condition, the researchers say. It is distinct from other tau accumulations that have been the focus of earlier drug development. Because this type of truncated tau protein is not present in the brains of patients with most other forms of dementia, measuring the fragments in cerebrospinal...

The NFL has signed its first biological male who identifies as transgender to be part of the women's cheerleading squad for the Carolina Topcats. Justine Lindsay, 29, announced the news that Lindsay would be joining the women's squad. Lindsay announced the news in March via Instagram with "Cats Out the Bag you are looking at the newest member of the Carolina Panthers TopCats Cheerleader’s as the first Transgender female."

Egyptian archaeologists have revealed another massive haul of priceless artifacts from the Saqqara Necropolis, a bountiful site near Cairo that likely still holds untold secrets. On display Monday were dozens of newly-discovered, beautifully decorated coffins or sarcophagi, still sealed up with their owners mummified inside, along with dozens of bronze statues.Monday's big reveal, with artifacts lined up in front of Saqqara's Step Pyramid of Djoser for journalists to admire, was the fifth by the archaeologists working at the site since 2018, and there are still many years of work left to carry out there.The latest discoveries, including about 250 still-sealed...

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Excavations of a Viking-era site in Iceland has revealed a previously unknown man-made cave.Archaeologists from the Archaeological Institute of Iceland have been excavating near the small village of Oddi in Rangárvellir, Iceland.Oddi was the seat of the Oddaverjar, a powerful clan in the medieval Icelandic Commonwealth. One of the most famous clan members was Sæmundur the Learned (AD 1056-1133) who wrote the early histories of the Norwegian Kings. The settlement developed into a major centre for culture and learning, with Iceland’s patron saint, Þorlákur Þórhallsson, receiving his education at Oddi from the age of nine (AD 1142-1147).Man-made caves at Oddi...

Plunging poll numbers have President Biden in a snit. He's particularly irked that his intended "ultra MAGA" smear tactic has backfired as Trump proudly appropriated the phrase for his own use saying "after a year-and-a-half of ultra Biden incompetence and disaster the American people are eager for a return of the policies that had this country on track for record-breaking prosperity." "The runaway prosperity that Trump inflicted on the American people was wrecking the environment," Biden complained. "I don't understand why I'm not getting more credit for reversing course. It's as if voters prefer selfish personal gains over ecological virtue....

After reading the Los Angeles Times over the past few days, I understand why the once-respected newspaper will most likely go out of business. At least, its print edition will. The paper is incredibly out of touch with working, non-ideological people who simply want a decent life for themselves and their families. Example. In both LA and San Francisco, homeless drug addicts are battering law-abiding citizens. Everyone knows this. We can see it with our own eyes. The crime statistics are staggering. And for every crime, victims suffer. Yet, the LA Times is not outraged by the addicted criminal or...

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed Monday that he won't attend the Summit of the Americas hosted by President Biden in Los Angeles this week because not all countries in the Americas are invited. López Obrador had previously threatened to skip the summit if the Biden administration didn't invite countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Those countries did not receive invitations over human rights concerns and their "lack of democratic space," a senior U.S. official said Monday. The official said the U.S., as the host of this year's summit, has "wide discretion on invitations, but deeply values and respects...

BRUSSELS — Faced with the prospect that the war in Ukraine will be long and grinding, NATO countries are divided on how best to manage the next stage of the conflict and the uncertain period that promises to follow.Central European members like Poland and the Baltic states want a total break with Moscow and an effort to bring Russia to its knees, two senior Western officials said. They worry that anything that Russia can present as a victory will do serious damage to European security.But other nations believe that Russia cannot be easily subdued and that the war’s outcome is...

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty blasted several Tampa Bay Rays players for refusing to wear the gay pride logo in Saturday’s game. Flaherty steamed that the players’ decision was an “absolute joke,” as he criticized Rays Jason Adam, Jalen Beeks, Brooks Raley, Jeffrey Springs, and Ryan Thompson for refusing to wear the activist logo.

Left-wing HBO host John Oliver has dismissed calls for sending more police into schools following the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, saying that the solution is more gun control. In Sunday’s episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver launched an anti-police rant and cited a study claiming that a police presence in schools could even motivate shooters to come more heavily armed.